HTC’s Beats Electronics unit is expected to be wrapping up a deal to buy music streaming service MOG.
MOG is a subscription-based service and has really been unable to compete with the much more popular serivce Spotify and it was assumed that the company was aggressively looking to be acquired by someone to remain relevant.
Terms of the deal were not spilled, but the two companies allegedly began firming up the negotiations a couple weeks ago, and the deal has for all intents and purposes been completely inked and finalized. Neither HTC nor MOG has made an official comment about this rumored acquisition deal.
It has previously been rumored that HTC wanted to launch its own music subscription service. The business model of a supscription service has been tested and failed for many companies, since users want to own their music and they want it to be portable. But if it’s a platform that lives and breathes on their phone, that might be a different story, especially for consumers who use their phone as their exclusive music player anyway.
This is the latest push from HTC to expand its horizons beyond being just another smartphone manufacturer. Its Beats division has already proven that HTC can do more than phones, as it raked in around $500 million last year.
The Beats line of headphones have kind of become like the hip, new version of Bose, with incredibly high-end products priced at around $500 per pair managing to capture the fascination of audiophiles around the country.
As for the MOG deal, MOG has more than 500,000 active users, but it’s believe less than a fifth of those are actually active paying members. HTC would have its work cut out for itself if it wanted to help turn MOG into a truly viable platform.
