Sony said to be actively looking into sale of Gracenote

Andre Yoskowitz
18 Dec 2013 23:44

According to Bloomberg, Sony has hired Qatalyst Partners to look into a sale of its Gracenote audio-recognition software business.

Gracenote will become its own independent company, and has been owned by Sony since 2008.

The sources say Gracenote has revenues between $100 and $200 million per year.

Gracenote powers iTunes' track identifying software, and is also the basis for some song-recognition services and apps that rival Shazam. Gracenote tech is also used in most of Sony's consumer products, including TVs and smartphones/tablets.

Sony has been actively looking to trim the amount of divisions and the amount of products it offers.