Listen.com Acquires WiredPlanet

Online music guide Listen.com (www.listen.com) today announced the acquisition of streaming audio provider WiredPlanet ( www.wiredplanet.com).

Though terms of deal between the two San Francisco-based private companies were not disclosed, in an interview, Listen.com president Sean Ryan said the final deal ran "substantially higher" than the $1 million to $1.5 million asking price, as reported by TheStandard.com.

In addition to providing streaming radio channels in a wide range of music genres, WiredPlanet also builds custom-branded radio stations for Web sites, record labels and other content owners. Listen.com will begin to integrate WiredPlanet's streaming technologies into its own offerings immediately.

The acquisition, the first for Listen.com, marks a definitive shift for a company once thought of as the "legal" consumer directory for digital music downloads. Over the past few months, Listen.com has made a series of announcements -- including partnerships with Launch.com and Rollingstone.com to provide online music videos and the launching of its Japanese site (Listen Japan KK) -- in an attempt to branch out its business strategies.

"The acquisition [of WiredPlanet] fits into both our editorial and syndication strategies," said Ryan. "In addition, it helps our media technology strategy. Hopefully, one day we'll be able to stream music videos to wireless devices in Japan."

While the majority of Listen.com's revenue comes from advertising on its destination site, Ryan sees syndication deals as the future of its business focus. "We've always had an ultimate middleman role ... and we hope to provide to our distribution partners a one-stop-shop for an entire digital media experience," said Ryan.

Ryan says the company will be rolling out an ad sales force in the next few months and, despite the tough times falling on many digital content Web sites, Listen.com is in a buying mode.

"This will not be the last acquisition for Listen," said Ryan. "We're looking opportunistically to bring more companies into the fold."