Well here’s a stroke of good news, we’re sure you’ll agree. According to TechCrunch the once hugely popular and still much loved Winamp media player and Shoutcast streaming service are to live on, even after AOL announced that it was to die late last year. In fact, both did come to the end of their natural days on December 30th, but it seems they will be resurrected thanks to a deal that sees a Belgian firm take ownership of the pair.
Digital audio business Radionomy has apparently bought both Winamp and Shoutcast from AOL, with the latter picking up a 12% stake in the minnow in the process. TechCrunch says that its sources suggest that between $5 million and $10 million changed hands as part of the deal, which is a far cry from the $80 million that AOL paid Nullsoft back in 1999.
It would also seem that instead of just taking what is already there and carrying it on, Radionomy plans to improve on both Winamp and Shoutcast. Winamp will reportedly gain support for 60 audio and video formats, while Shoutcast will play host to some 60,000 radio streams. The company hopes that by improving both offerings it will make it one of the biggest names in the streaming audio game. Having been previously unknown by many, we’d say that the game-plan is working already.
Rumors had previously suggested that Microsoft may be pondering a move for Winamp and Shoutcast, with that eventually coming to nothing. Interestingly though, there is a connection between both Microsoft and Radionomy via the latter company’s founder, according to TechCrunch’s report.
While one of our early reports noted that Microsoft was in the mix, that turned out not to be the case, but here’s an interesting twist: CEO/Radionomy founder Alexandre Saboundjian’s previous company, a telematics firm called Magic Phone, is now a part of Microsoft.
We were big fans of Winamp as we grew up, and it’s great to hear that something from our youth has not only survived its own funeral, but is also on the verge of going from strength to strength,
Now, what do we want to make a comeback next?
(Source: TechCrunch)
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