Motorola signs agreement to acquire Soundbuzz

Motorola today has signed an agreement to acquire music provider Soundbuzz. The takeover is expected to be completed in Q1 2008.

The deal will enable Motorola to expand its MotoMusic service beyond China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Details of the acquisition were not available at press time.

According to Ian Chapman-Banks, vice president of Marketing for Asia Pacfic Mobile Devices, Motorola launched MotoMusic, its digital music download service in August 2006, with China Mobile as its key partner. There are currently approximately 3 to 4 million MotoMusic members.

With the acquisition of the music provider headquartered in Singapore, the mobile phone giant hopes to break into other Asian markets such as India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Motorola today also announced four handsets including the ROKR E8 at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Shipment figures from IDC show that the cell phone maker ranked third in Asia Pacific except Japan, behind Nokia and Samsung for the third quarter last year.