Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Playster.org — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:59:52 -0000

If you're looking for music events, you should check out http://www.playster.org - We currently index Upcoming, Last.fm and Meetup, and have a wealth of music events that you can search by keyword.

Enjoy!

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Dave Gray — Thu, 31 May 2007 03:31:17 -0000

I am not sure that this is a good thing. Large corporate company acquires a good thing = bad (usually). But as I said I am undecided. It will depend what they do with it.

I have seem a few comments saying that the added clout of CBS will enable it to grow and expand. But what if they start collecting user data, inserting ads into both the player and what you are listening to? I can not see them wanting to do anything else. Me, I would rather subscribe to the service - or have the option to; so that I did not get the ads - either visual or audio.

Price; sure it is cheaper than I expected. However, see a moderation in acquisition prices is a good thing, most sites and services are over valuated anyway and it makes the industry sustainable.

Lastly, has anyone considered what might happen to the open source nature of Last.fm's software?

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Mark Rosner — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:31:15 -0000

Great buy. Though I wouldn't know much about the valuation...

http://www.capitalai.com/bl...

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Jonathan — Wed, 30 May 2007 16:46:21 -0000

CBS own a few radio stations, a pretty good fit. Well done Pete for breaking that story :-)

The music space is hotting up - and Tunefeed.com has a new version coming. Exciting times!

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

breba — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:34:24 -0000

Paying $18.66 per user seems high because I don't think they can continue to grow under CBS. I know I don't want a large corporation like CBS to have my music listening information. Good thing I moved to http://soundcrank.com.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Christopher Walken — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:16:35 -0000

I wonder why it wasn't CBS Radio that made the purchase and where it will sit within CBS.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

BuÄŸra — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:13:32 -0000

We will have to wait to see what fresh changes will CBS bring to LastFM. I think it's a bit cheap for its great services.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Jason — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:40:15 -0000

Isn't it obvious? last.fm is the perfect social networking app for mtv.com users. They are in a position to easily negotiate deals that allow for the integration of their mtv video content into the newly launched last.fm video component and become a hotbed for unsigned/indie acts to promote their wares to a dedicated audience and with the potential for larger exposure. last.fm could, over time, become a competitor to myspace music in the viacom world.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Pete Cashmore — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:47:47 -0000

Update:Marshall just reminded me that they're pretty much owned by Ticketmaster. (see below)

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Pete Cashmore — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:46:02 -0000

Ha, I actually reported on that:

http://mashable.com/2006/12...

Memory loss is a terrible thing. ;)

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:10:53 -0000

Pete, iLike is controled by Ticketmaster, eg IAC, so I think they're probably as good as bought. Unless it's investment they want to flip, but I doubt it.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Tom Clarke — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:16:40 -0000

Jay - last.fm is a very successful social media site which has a lot of potential. With the new clout behind them, they can go out and chase up more deals with record companies for music and video. More music and video suggests that people won't get bored. I think you're jumping the gun by calling this move 'dumb'.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Jay (living in First Life) — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:05:13 -0000

Connector, pardon my French but you're way off.

A lot of social networks experience decreased usage as people get bored of them. Average usage per user is already decreasing at a number of social networks.

When something cool (that is free) gets bought by a big copmany, usually one of two things happens:

a) The acquirer leaves it as is and realizes 0 monetary benefit - e.g. Conde Nast blowing money on Reddit

b) The acquirer tries to make a run at it and hurts the userbase because people will move on to the next free thing.

Delicious and Flickr have done very little to promote Yahoo itself. Delicious brings in next to nothing for Yahoo. Flickr at least has photo publishing associated with it to generate some cash.

This is a dumb acquisiiton and will bite CBS in the butt. Last.fm is not Myspace.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Andrew — Wed, 30 May 2007 10:28:21 -0000

Congrats to last.fm!

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Connnector — Wed, 30 May 2007 10:00:51 -0000

Volkher, pardon me but you're clueless.

a)Users are either leaving....... How do you know this? Do you work there? I'm not defending the German facebook but if the site provides value to its users then they'll embrace it and grow attach to the site and more importantly to their friends' groups/community. Users don't just abandon a social site just for the sake of it. They'll leave if their friends are no longer using the site.

b)some upper echelons....... Again you're missing the point. In return for using a website for FREE and having FREE communication tools at their disposal, users are willing to accept some "business opportunities" thrown at them. The first thing my economics professor said was: "There ain't such a thing as a free lunch"

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Matt Brian — Wed, 30 May 2007 09:03:09 -0000

Them boys did good!

I can remember when the site first sprung up, it was a novelty being able to share music tastes with complete unknowns.

I would check back from time to time and it would have evolved massively between the visits. I wasnt sure it had made the bigtime until I saw a last.fm button on the O2 Wireless Festival website recently and now this comes out of the blue!

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Volkher Hofmann — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:47:44 -0000

I fail to really see the business benefit of acquiring social networks such as last.FM. Somehow I think this is all just going to help bust the Web 2.0 (or whatever tag you'd like to apply) bubble a lot sooner than it would otherwise.

Here in Germany I believe it's already becoming quite clear that the purchase of our Facebook clone by one of the biggest publishing houses results in two things:

a) Users are either leaving or are using the platform less (which, most likely, they had already started doing before the purchase and when the novelty of the site began to wear off) and

b) some upper echelons of the acquiring company's management are going to notice that a heterogeneous user base such as the one on the purchased site is either smart enough to avoid the new "business opportunities" which are "thrown" at them or will simply move on to the next big thing (Virb et.al., anyone? All we need is a clone of that/those type(s) of sites over here).

In the end, the purchaser is left with a load of (mostly useless) addresses.

Or not?

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Pete Cashmore — Wed, 30 May 2007 07:30:09 -0000

ilike would be a good buy before it blows up on facebook and no one can afford it.

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

phil — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:56:45 -0000

WOW is right, who's next??? pandora, ilike, mog?

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Pete Cashmore — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:32:48 -0000

Maybe the growing pressure on internet radio stations was factored in?

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

clidex — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:06:32 -0000

wanna know if last fm is right for you? check out the next quiz!

it will tell you which social network is the one for you

Re: WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

Jas — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:01:58 -0000

Yeah way to cheap, try doubling it !