Nokia Acquires Loudeye For Mobile Music Experience

Today Nokia and Loudeye announced that they’ve reached an agreement for Nokia to buyout Loudeye in a 60 million dollar deal.

Loudeye specializes in mobile content and distribution and Nokia will be able to offer a more comprehensive mobile experience including devices, applications and music downloads.

Nokia sold more than 15 million music enabled devices in the second quarter, including the popular N91, making Nokia the largest manufacturer of digital music devices.

“This agreement recognizes the key roles that Loudeye and our people play in the digital mobile music market, and reflects the power of our products, our team and our technology,” said Michael Brochu, president and chief executive officer of Loudeye. “Our combined teams will deliver a comprehensive mobile music experience to Nokia device owners all over the world. With an industry leading music experience, a robust service platform, and extensive music rights, Loudeye has long been committed to delivering on the digital music needs of consumers, and we’ve built a leadership brand in the digital music marketplace”.

This deal still must be approved by shareholders and is expected to be completed in Q4 of 2006.

Resource: Loudeye.com