Motorola to enhance music delivery in Asia with acquisition of Soundbuzz

Motorola, Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Soundbuzz Pte. Ltd., a privately held, leading pan-Asian music provider. The acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

Through its MOTOMUSIC service, Motorola has more than two years experience delivering mobile music to consumers with its carrier customers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  The acquisition of Soundbuzz allows Motorola to expand MOTOMUSIC beyond China, into India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

With well over 90% of all digital music content in Asia sold via mobile channels, a level expected to remain in the coming years, Motorola’s strength in music delivery will help its carrier customers access this growth opportunity.

Soundbuzz’s multi-region music delivery platform enables the purchase and distribution of digital content through over-the-air and wired broadband connections. The company’s end-to-end system includes subscriber management, content management, payment, client software and media delivery technologies.

The company maintains a consumer-facing brand, Soundbuzz, and will continue to provide “white-label” services to carrier customers that offer tailored solutions for Multimedia delivery.

Headquartered in Singapore, Soundbuzz has access to one of the most extensive music libraries in the Asia-Pacific region, through licenses from Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music International and Universal Music Group, as well as over 45 independent record labels in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.  Motorola intends to maintain Soundbuzz’s Singapore headquarters, which will be an integral component of Motorola’s digital music development strategy in Asia.

Soundbuzz is Asia‘s largest online and mobile music company, with its 50-plus collective stores attracting the majority of online and wireless purchases. The company operates its own store, http://www.soundbuzz.com, as well as providing content and/or technology infrastructure to partners such as Hutchison 3, Motorola, Airtel, SingTel, M1, Optus Zoo, Telstra, BigPond Music, Windows Media Player 10, Creative Technology and SONY BMG.

With more than 750,000 tracks available to download, Soundbuzz is a ‘one-stop-shop’ for music, where music lovers can buy and download their favourite tracks onto their PCs, portable music players and mobile phones.