HTC’s Beats Audio unit may have bought music subscription service MOG, according to a rumor reported by Business Insider Monday. Insider writer Matt Rosoff based his report on a single source, but we have since also heard from a source that term sheets went back and forth between the two companies a few weeks ago.
MOG is one of the smaller music subscription services that has struggled to compete with the attention that Spotify has been getting since the launch of its U.S. service last year. There have been persistent rumors that MOG was up for sale in recent months, but the company’s CEO David Hyman denied any such plans in February. MOG didn’t respond in time with a comment for this article, but we will update once we hear back from them.
Om reported a month ago that HTC was rumored to be in talks to launch its own music subscription service on its handsets. Beats Audio founder Jimmy Iovine was apparently key to these plans, which may have been motivated in part by the success that wireless operator Cricket has been having with its own Muve music subscription service. Cricket announced earlier this year that Muve now has more than 500,000 paying subscribers.
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