14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo! is trying to go for the gold in the music sector, at least in the last period. It's been making statements on the matter, it even released the code for a Java-free web based MP3 player that searches for tunes on the page it is located. Now, it looks like it is trying to buy the Israeli-based FoxyTunes.
As per usual with Yahoo, it chose not to comment about the possibility of this deal going through, as Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.com, who first heard about it, wrote. Neither did FoxyTunes for that matter, and this could mean that the negotiations are still underway for the Firefox plug-in that let's users control their media players from the browser.
It looks like a typical Yahoo! scheme, buying off a service when it could pretty easily come up with the same product. The policy it has regarding the acquisitions is a pretty buggy one, if you ask me, they usually pay a lot of money for startups and then, in case the new toy doesn't perform as well as it should have, or in case it isn't as successful as they anticipated it would be, they just abandon it and leave it to rot.
The main point here is that FoxyTunes already has a large enough fan base on its own and an eventual buy from Yahoo! could also mean its downfall, not only an opportunity to step its game up a notch. On the other hand, it's not likely that the Sunnyvale-based company will be paying for the application in the form it is at the moment, but for the technology involved with it. As I mentioned, the future of music on the Internet is what Yahoo! is going for and the followers of FoxyTunes could be part of the answer with that.