Yahoo! Near Another Buy

On the heels of a round of private funding that raised more than $18 million, MyPlay Inc. Thursday was rumored to be near a deal to be snapped up by portal giant Yahoo!.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal Thursday, the two companies are negotiating and the price may fall in the $200 million range. Officials of both companies declined to comment.

MyPlay, which offers a "virtual" locker that allows users to store online versions of their CDs on the company's Web site, has become a hot property because it seems to be acceptable to record companies concerned about piracy issues raised by companies like Napster.

Yahoo! has been seeking to expand its online music presence according to The Journal. In recent months the portal company has had talks with Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment and Seagram Co.'s Universal Music Group.

MyPlay, launched by Apple Computer Inc. alumni David Pakman and Douglas Camplejohn in October 1999, has a number of strategic partnerships that could help Yahoo! find its way into the market or sour the deal. In April, the company made an agreement with Yahoo! rival America Online Inc. to integrate the myplay Web-based application throughout the Winamp and Spinner Web sites. The Wall Street Journal report noted that MyPlay's relationship with AOL could complicate the negotiations. Other partners include EMusic.com, Rollingstone.com, Dreamworks Records, and Artemis Records.