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Business News Deals Digital
Winamp saved after Radionomy acquisition
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 16 January 2014
Having previously been sentenced to death by current owner AOL, Winamp has been saved after an acquisition by online radio service Radionomy.
The deal reportedly sees AOL shift the digital music player and its own radio service Shoutcast for reportedly somewhere between $5 million and $10 million, as well as taking a 12% stake in Radionomy. AOL purchased Winamp and Shoutcast from Nullsoft in 1999 for $80 million.
As previously reported, AOL announced in November that it would shut down Winamp on 20 Dec, but shortly afterwards rumours began to circulate that Radionomy was negotiating an acquisition, much to the delight of its existing users and the large number of people with nostalgic feelings towards the veteran digital music player.
It’s expected that Winamp will now continue to run as is, for the time being at least, with Radionomy founder and CEO Alexandre Saboundjian telling TechCrunch: “We want to rebuild the story for Winamp. We think the future can be great because the strategy is not just desktop but mobile and cars and so much more … Perhaps there has been no special innovation in the last two years, but it is still a very strong community and still appreciated by those users”.
Launched in 2007, Radionomy offers streaming access to over 60,000 online radio stations for free. With the Winamp acquisition complete, and Shoutcast’s stations added to its catalogue, the French company is now apparently planning to seek new funding to continue its growth.
