Motorola to acquire Soundbuzz, expand mobile music biz in India

In an attempt to expand its digital music delivery in India and other parts of Asia, Motorola will acquire the online and mobile music company, Soundbuzz

Motorola is all set to acquire Soundbuzz, the Asian online and mobile music company. The acquisition is expected to close by April 2008. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed yet.

The acquisition is part of Motorola’s attempt to tap the delivery of music content on the Internet and mobile. It will enable Motorola to expand its MotoMusic service in countries like India, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. MotoMusic, Motorola’s mobile music service, has been available for more than two years in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. (See case study)

Soundbuzz is a Singapore based digital music content distribution company, which offers solutions to telecom partners, Internet service providers and music companies. In India, Soundbuzz provides a technology platform and music content to Tata VSNL, Bharti MTNL, BSNL, Airtel and portals such as Indiatimes.com and MTVIndia.com.

Motorola to acquire Soundbuzz, expand mobile music biz in India

Acknowledging the acquisition, Lloyd Mathias, director, Motorola India, says, “We have acquired Soundbuzz globally as we are looking at bringing our MotoMusic service to India. We will be looking at expanding the services of the MotoMusic website to India.”

Speaking to agencyfaqs!, Sudhanshu Sarronwala, chief executive officer, Soundbuzz, says, “Soundbuzz is already present in India and other Asian markets, so we will use our expertise to help Motorola expand its music services to other markets. We have partnerships with Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone in India for their music download services. The strategy (behind the acquisition) is to roll out music services in other markets, so we’ll be working with Motorola and helping them with our wealth of music content.”

In a press statement, Bill Werner, senior vice-president, future solutions and technology for mobile devices, Motorola, said, “(The acquisition) will provide Motorola with one of the most extensive music libraries in the Asia Pacific region, advance our music and video offerings in Australia and Southeast Asia, and build on the success of our MotoMusic services in China.”

Soundbuzz owns a music library of more than 750,000 tracks all available for digital download. It works as a technology and content partner for the music download services of global firms such as Hutchison 3, Motorola, Airtel, SingTel, Sony BMG and Windows Media Player 10. Soundbuzz also operates its own online music store.

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