CBS Acquires Last.fm

US media giant, CBS has purchased UK based Last.fm for Topic: $280m (£140m). Jump to BBC News for details, or read on for my brief thoughts.

As part of the acquisition, the Last.fm management team, including founders Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones, will continue to independently run the online network

Mr Stiksel said the deal proved that Web 2.0 companies did not have to be in the United States to succeed.

"Being in London has helped us; it's the best place to do things with music full stop. It's the place that leads the world."

The three founders will now be among the most successful - and potentially wealthy - Web 2.0 pioneers in the world.

Mr Stiksel said: "The success of the site is the most important thing. With a strong partner we can add the features we always dreamed about."

More Sources: last.fm forums, Mashable!, TechCrunch

I love last.fm, as stated in my previous post, and I really, really hope that this is a good deal. As I said over in the GamingW forum topic, I hope this helps towards performance and rolling out new features sooner. They say it will remain independent, which is a good thing, but if things start to suck, I'm gone. I don't think it will be bad anyhoo, and if they keep recommending me the right music then I'll be happy. And hey, congrats to the founders, that is a very nice sum of money.

Then again, there goes the only major, independent, UK based, Web 2.0 company...