{"id":2460,"date":"2009-12-04T18:26:04","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T02:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2460"},"modified":"2009-12-04T18:36:53","modified_gmt":"2009-12-05T02:36:53","slug":"apple-buys-lala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/04\/apple-buys-lala\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Buys Lala"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a steep discount according to Peter Kafka at allthingsd.com<\/a> \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Essentially fifty cents on the dollar.<\/p>\n

WMG continues to be the worst investor on the block, already having written down $11 million of its $20 million dollar investment.<\/p>\n

So what exactly is Apple buying?<\/p>\n

Technology.<\/p>\n

There’s the issue of being able to put a listener’s MP3\/iTunes collection in the cloud for access elsewhere\/on a mobile device and the ability to stream those songs almost instantly.<\/p>\n

But didn’t Apple have this infrastructure already?<\/p>\n

Seems not.<\/p>\n

The same way the Cupertino company purchased SoundJam MP to get into the computer music world by tweaking it and releasing it as iTunes, it appears Apple is a step behind when it comes to streaming.<\/p>\n

Then again, the price paid was a bargain.\u00c2\u00a0 Lala wanted to sell.\u00c2\u00a0 It saw no upside in the future, only the need to raise more money.<\/p>\n

And Apple’s got a huge cash hoard.\u00c2\u00a0 So why not buy some code and engineers that will help you get to your destination…<\/p>\n

So, it appears that Spotify is further down the line with streaming technology than Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 Whodathunk?<\/p>\n

But when it comes to Apple, nobody knows anything, because Steve Jobs and his minions just don’t talk.<\/p>\n

But it does appear that even Apple now believes streaming is the future and wants to have all the technology in its arsenal necessary to play.<\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

Kafka now says a source indicates his numbers are "way off", but the "New York Times" states: " the negotiations originated when Lala executives concluded that their prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim and initiated discussions with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president in charge of iTunes." And he who initiates the sale usually takes a hit on the price.<\/p>\n

\n
Apple Strikes Deal to Buy the Music Start-Up Lala<\/a><\/p>\n

Confirmed: Apple Buys Music Service Lala, At a Fire Sale Price<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My trusted source, with direct Apple access, tells me this:<\/p>\n

\n
"But Eddy Cue is way more interested in a couple of key men (developers) than the existing IP.
They’re not primariy buying tech this time."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a steep discount according to Peter Kafka at allthingsd.com \u00c2\u00a0 Essentially fifty cents on the dollar. WMG continues to be the worst investor on the block, already having written down $11 million of its $20 million dollar investment. So what exactly is Apple buying? Technology. There’s the issue of being able to put a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-DG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2460"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2460\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}