The story of music search engine SeeqPod may be finally nearing an end. It appears the remaining assets of the troubled startup have been purchased by Bloson, a recently launched social network to raise money for charitable causes. Bloson has specifically acquired SeeqPod’s domain and the contact information of its user base, which equals around 4 million users. Specific terms of the transaction have not been disclosed and the sale is still pending with the bankruptcy court in San Jose, Calif.
Update: we’ve received information that suggests this was a hoax of some kind, and that Seeqpod was not in fact acquired by Bloson but rather by Intertrust, a joint venture that includes involvement from Sony and Philips.
Seeqpod has had a tumultuous history over the past year. In February SeeqPod was slapped by lawsuits from EMI and Warner Music, as the record companies looked for billions of dollars in damages. In March, Seeqpod filed for bankruptcy protection and put itself up for sale. Last June, we wrote that the company was looking to sell off its domain name, with reports that it would be acquired by Microsoft (which didn’t happen). Last December, we heard that the technology assets of SeeqPod, which are owned by Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, were being sold to a “large Japanese media company” and the founders of the startup were building another company: the Mikojo music search engine.
Bloson.com allows users to raise money for causes by engaging in social activities on the site. Users receive point from sharing music and other content, making purchases and more. Music is all free to play and licensed; the site currently has 12 million songs. Whenever they share music or videos with their friends, or buy products at partner retailers they receive points. The points are then put towards a particular cause or philanthropic organization and Bloson makes a donation to these causes based on the number of points a user accumulates. Bloson makes money through display advertising and through affiliate fees from retail partners.
Bloson will be directing any traffic from SeeqPod to its site and Bloson will be inviting all 4 millions of SeeqPod’s former users via email to start using Bloson’s site. And with that, the sad story of SeeqPod draws to an end.