Last.fm, one of the most popular Internet radio related sites around, will have its ownership change hands soon. U.S. based CBS will be acquiring Last.fm for a massive $280 million, adding the site to its already huge portfolio. For their investment, CBS will be gaining the attention of the 15 million Last.fm users, but supposedly will allow the existing management to run things as they wish, including existing expansion projects:
Under the terms of the acquisition, Last.fm's founders will continue to run the firm independently. Taking the service to mobile devices will be near the top of their to-do list: Pandora recently announced a raft of developments to free its stations from PC-based listening.
Hopefully the impact of a new owner will be very limited, as the service is already successful. One thing is for sure, they will have no concerns if or when the royalty increases demanded by the RIAA and others occurs, as with financial backing like CBS money will be a minor object.