Vivendi Universal buys MP3.com

Vivendi Universal has agreed to buy music portal MP3.com for $372 million in cash and stock, Variety reports. This comes a few scant months after Universal Music Group, wholly owned by parent Vivendi Universal, successfully sued MP3.com in federal court for copyright infringement. This continues a series of Internet acquisitions by Vivendi Universal, which last month bought Emusic.com for $23 million and bought the other 50 percent of GetMusic in March. In April, Universal also announced that its coupling with Sony Music, tentatively named Duet, would be distributed and marketed by Yahoo! Details about how the service will work and how much it will cost have not been announced. According to The Associated Press, MP3.com shareholders will receive $5 for each share they own or receive stock in Vivendi worth $5, or a combination of both, Vivendi said. The company hopes that its acquisition of MP3.com will let it reach more than 40 million more registered users on the Internet.