Lycos Grabs Sonique MP3 Player

Following recent speculation, online portal Lycos Inc. Friday purchased Internet Music Distribution Inc., maker of the popular Sonique MP3 music player, for $38.8 million in stock.

Lycos will exchange approximately 1.1 million of its shares for all outstanding IMDI shares.

Lycos has had its finger on the pulse of the online music world recently, providing an MP3-specific search engine and offering Lycos Radio, a streaming audio and music video service. Now with Sonique, the company said Lycos users can benefit from both MP3 search and download services.

The player decodes compressed music files and formats them to be played from the desktop. It is available for free download from Sonique.com as well as from Lycos.com.

“The acquisition of IMDI is an exciting move for us as we approach our goal of becoming the premier multimedia company,” said Bob Davis, president and CEO of Lycos.

“With the acquisition of Sonique and the addition of the talented people at IMDI to the Lycos team, we will strengthen our leadership
position by offering the best the Web has to offer in music and entertainment content.”

The acquisition also puts Lycos up against online powerhouse America Online, which in June acquired MP3 content site Spinner Networks, Inc. and Nullsoft, Inc., maker of the popular Winamp MP3 player. Those deals are worth a combined value of $400 million.