The quickly growing music social network Last.fm has been acquired by CBS for $280 million in an all-cash deal. UK based Last.fm launched five years ago and has become a social networking favorite with 15 million active users. It has become a massive repository for music information (artist and song wikis, listening data from users, etc.). In the U.S., companies like Pandora , MOG and iLike all compete with some of Last.fm’s features, although none of those startups has built the basic social network/community of last.fm.
The deal sees Last.fm’s management team staying in place and the site maintaining a separate identity. Last.fm has been an attractive takeover target for some time. CBS as a buyer though is surprising and is a sure sign that the media giant is getting serious about Web 2.0. CBS acquired video blog WallStrip for $5 million earlier this month, and has been on a bit of a buying spree lately after filling out the management team on the interactive side of the business last year. Previous TechCrunch coverage here . This certainly explains why Last.fm was a little slow to jump on the Facebook Applications bandwagon last week – they were understandably distracted.
