What a couple of weeks this has been for music notation software.
On July 16, 2012, MakeMusic, Inc. confirmed that it had received a proposal from LaunchEquity Partners, LLC (“LaunchEquity”) to acquire the operating assets of MakeMusic, excluding cash, and assume the related liabilities of MakeMusic, free and clear of all liens and encumbrances, for $13.5 million.
LaunchEquity, LLC already owns 27% of MMUS common stock. Their proposal aims to liquidate the company and distribute the available cash to existing shareholders.
Justin Phillips, the Portfolio Manager of Notation Products for MakeMusic, posted an explanation on the Finale Forum:
“MakeMusic needs to inject at least $10 million over the next two years to (a) recruit and retain a new CEO, (b) upgrade both the Notation (Finale) and SmartMusic software product lines and (c) cover working capital and seasonal liquidity needs.”
No doubt in an effort to reassure Finale users who have been hearing about Avid recently dismantling Sibelius, he also stated:
“Further, it is our intention to retain MMUS’s employees as we view them to be a significant asset of the company.”
MakeMusic’s board has authorized a special committee to consider the full range of available strategic alternatives.
On July 2, 2012 we learned that Avid had closed down Sibelius headquarters in the UK.
READ MORE
DISCUSS
Thanks for the info, Robert. It’s confusing to me that with more people making music than ever, music software manufacturers continue to struggle.
disheartening. maybe MMUS should go private, get vc, and head into cloud services. i think the days of $600 killer apps are waning; it seems that it makes more sense to write a gigantic app running on a server farm and get affordable subscriber fees. i think vc would see enormous value in that, and it would give MMUS time to change the business model. a publicly traded company doesn’t have that kind of flexibility.