AOL has already confirmed that its online media player Winamp is shutting soon but is reportedly in talks with Microsoft for a possible acquisition. Techcrunch has made this revelation which also cover the Shoutcast, an internet radio streaming service made by Winamp’s creator Nullsoft. AOL acquired Winamp through Nullsoft in 1999 for $80 million; and it also owned tech-related sites such as Engadget and Techcrunch and news site Huffington Post.
AOL’s disposal of Winamp is due market competition as more online companies are already creating their own versions of a media player. Microsoft may not find Winamp a potential revenue maker for now but it can be useful in the future. As for Shoutcast, it can easily dip into the services of more than 50,000 radio stations to improve the music feature of Xbox One particularly in the conceptualization of an Xbox Music portal.
Acquisition of Winamp and Shoutcast, therefore, is designed to add music services to the Xbox One but Microsoft is silent about the issue for the time being. The talks are currently centered on the acquisition price and it may take days yet or a week to find out if AOL and Microsoft has finally agreed to an acquisition agreement once the right price has been reached.
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