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SanDisk To Buy Wireless MP3 Pioneer MusicGremlin |
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| Tuesday June 10th, 2008 / 19h38 |
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DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) agreed to buy wireless MP3 player pioneer MusicGremlin for an undisclosed sum.
MusicGremlin's team will be absorbed into SanDisk's Sansa audio/visual unit, according to unit head Daniel Schreiber.
The company, launched in 2003, built players called Gremlins that can download music from an accompanying subscription service directly, without the need for a personal computer, and allowed customers to share their songs with other Gremlin users. Schreiber said the Gremlin, and MusicGremlin's service will not be continued.
The technology, while innovative at the time, was soon copied by others including Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in their Zune players and SanDisk itself in Sansa Connect players. None of the wireless players have yet come within shouting distance of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPod in terms of sales.
"(MusicGremlin's) impact has been muted because they haven't had the kind of distribution that SanDisk has," Schreiber said. He said his team will not be trying to "out Apple Apple," but will be looking to build devices that fill niches the dominant MP3 player maker hasn't addressed.
-By Andrew Edwards, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5973; Andrew.Edwards@dowjones.com
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| Tuesday June 10th, 2008 / 19h38 |
Source : Dowjones Business News |
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