No Rock And Roll Fun

OD2 DOWNLOADED: Peter Gabriel's OD2 company has been flogged off to US digital music distro Loudeye. OD2 provide the actual downloadedy bits for MyCokeMusic, Virgin, HMV and MSN, amongst others. We wonder if there's some DRM hidden in the belly of the company so that if Loudeye try to move it to a different city it'll cease to work. Still, it gives us a chance to see what OD2 is worth - it's apparently filling out deposit slips for USD2.5million a quarter, and its making a loss on that. Loudeye themselves aren't exactly profitable, either, so in some respect this is the wedding of two bums, pooling their negative resources. The price? Loudeye are paying USD38.6million in cash and shares. We hope, for Pete's sake, it's mainly cash.