Santa Clara, CA–Macrovision Corporation has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire All Media Guide Holdings, Inc. (AMG), one of the worlds largest providers of information databases and metadata for entertainment products (music, movies, and games) as well as solutions that support the recognition, discovery and management of digital media. Founded in 1991, AMG is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is privately held. The acquisition is subject to customary conditions to closing, including review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, and is expected to close by the end of 2007.
AMG, operating under the trade name All Media Guide, is one of the largest and most comprehensive entertainment information databases with reviews, biographies, ratings, images, titles, credits, essays, and descriptive categories for music, movies, and video games. AMG’s metadata encompasses information for more than eleven million song tracks, one million unique albums, millions of compact discs, more than 500,000 cover images, eight million streaming sound files and tens of millions of relational links. Its media recognition technology and music discovery software is deployed on numerous electronic devices.
AMG’s customers include industry leading brick and mortar retailers, Internet retailers and portals, and consumer electronic manufacturers. These customers utilize AMG’s data to provide comprehensive information that enables consumers to make better and faster decisions about the songs, albums, movies and games they buy or play, irrespective of the type of electronics device used to access the content.
The acquisition of AMG extends Macrovision’s solutions for the enhancement and distribution of digital content by making it easier for consumers to discover, purchase, interact with and play back digital media assets, which is a strategic priority for Macrovision. Macrovision and AMG’s combined solutions offer consumer electronics device manufacturers the ability to better manage media while putting information about millions of movies, videos and songs within the easy reach of consumers. AMG’s comprehensive data is also intended to strongly appeal to Macrovision video content customers, which include Hollywood studios. AMG’s content enables those customers to more easily monetize digital media by making content identification, navigation, recommendation and enjoyment simpler for consumers.
“In an era when consumers have many choices, cell phone manufacturers, electronics device makers and service providers want to make video and all other entertainment content quick and easy to find,” said Fred Amoroso, CEO of Macrovision Corporation. “AMG plays a critical role in enhancing the overall consumers’ user experience in searching, discovering, purchasing and enjoying entertainment media. Its offerings complement our existing solutions nd partnerships for helping content owners monetize their digital media assets and device makers retain and grow their customer base.”
“Metadata is a critical component of media commerce and demand for rich descriptive data such as reviews, album art, artist biographies and accompanying editorials is growing quickly,” said Karl Ryser Jr., president of AMG. It takes years to accumulate a high-quality database of metadata, and AMG has become an essential partner for its customers. Joining together with Macrovision puts us in an even better position to help more consumer electronics manufacturers, retailers and content owners collaborate with customers to create outstanding online media experiences.”
Visit www.macrovision.com and www.allmusic.com
