Winamp is back… in the hands of a major corporation: Vivendi has acquired a 64.4 percent stake in Radionomy, the European online radio services company that owns Winamp and Shoutcast as well as the online radio ad marketplace Targetspot.
Winamp is a pioneering MP3 player software, which in many ways was instrumental to the early success of digital music. First released in 1997, Winamp became one of the most popular digital media applications of its time, only to eventually lose out to Apple’s iTunes. AOL acquired Winamp maker Nullsoft in 2001, and eventually announced to shutter the app in 2013.
In early 2014, radio aggregation and advertising services provider Radionomy announced the acquisition of Winamp as well as the early the online radio directory and streaming technology platform Shoutcast, which had also been developed and maintained by the Winamp team. Radionomy has apparently been working on a new version of Winamp, which hasn’t been released yet.
In addition to Vivendi, Radionomy is being owned by founder Alexandre Saboundjian, its employees and Union Square Ventures, according to a statement released Thursday. There’s no word on how much Vivendi spent on its stake in the company.
