MySpace Confirms iLike Acquisition. Conference Call Livenotes

by editor on Aug.19, 2009, under TechCrunch

As expected, MySpace has confirmed that it bought iLike. It is not disclosing financial terms, but our information is that it was around $20 million. A conference call is about to start. My notes are below.

Owen Van Natta: This is teh first time I am speaking with you since taking on the role of CEO a feew montsh ago. In that time we have rstructutred and hired some talanted people. This is an offical announcement that MySpace has entered into an agreement acquired iLike

Decsion base don 3 things

1. need to innovate. Music is part of people’s lives. We strengthen our ability to innovate in this stea

2. shared belief in open content distribution. People want to interact in many places. We will take that strategy and apply it across the Web.

3. Great people. Expect to see continued news about great talent coming to MySpace.

broadcast, discover, express themselves. Where culture gets defined through social experiences around entertainment. By combining two models We believe that what iLike has created is not limited to music, can be extended to video and games. Because we see it as bigger than music, we are making this apart from MySpace Music.

iLike’s founders will remain and will stay in Seattle. In addition 26 employees joining MySpace.

Q: Any guidance on new applications we can ex[pect?

Owen: We will take all the great things iLike has meant for users and extend all the things MySPace does with users and extedn that. You will be able to see a broader experience.

Q: How is this purchase going to affect iLike’s partnership with Facebook?

Owen: iLike is part of many social networks. My expectation is that social networks will be thriled that we are going to be making iLike an even richer experience in their environments.

Q: deal terms and how integrated into MySpace music

Owen: We have not disclosed deal terams. iLike has a great product we will continue to extend, a phenomenal management team. Allowing that team to operate autonomously is an important part of

Q: reports that iLike was poised to offer its own music store? IS this a defnsive move to shortcut that?

Owen: No, the thrust of this is distributed web, how can we serve users in a more distributed way.

Q: Will streaming from MySpace Music be offered through iLike? Also there was speculation that the deal was delayed because of tax issues or a cancelled iLike board meeting. Can you comment on that?

Owen: first Q about extending MySpace into iLike, we have no plans to do that at this time. On your second question, I read some oft the reports, I have been doing deals for 15 years now, and this was one of the smoother sailing deals.

Q: So there was no delay due to tax or other issues.

Owen: No delay

Q: Update on MySPace music

Owen: MySpace music has been doing extremely well, 1,000% growth since launch, 200% year over year in usage. It will continue to serve users for many years to come.

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