“The acquisitions are part of destra’s strategy to acquire consumer focused entertainment websites. We believe these sites offer an excellent environment for advertisers, in addition to the revenue generating potential from digital music downloads,” said Domenic Carosa, destra Corporation CEO.
Melbourne, 23rd March 2006 – destra Corporation Limited (ASX: DES) has become the largest independent music network in Australia with the acquisition of two music community websites; www.thescene.com.au and www.tranzfusion.net announced today.
“The acquisitions are part of destra’s strategy to acquire consumer focused entertainment websites. We believe these sites offer an excellent environment for advertisers, in addition to the revenue generating potential from digital music downloads,” said Domenic Carosa, destra Corporation CEO.
“These sites are the new entertainment “homes” of the highly desirable 12 – 30yr old demographic, who are becoming increasingly elusive for advertisers to connect with. We won’t compromise the integrity of these sites, ensuring we only permit appropriate products and services are represented on our sites in a way that does not detract from the consumers’ online experience. ”
Carosa added, “As part of our strategic review, the Board has decided to divest destra’s joint venture interest in Musicpoint [B2B service] to our joint venture partner, Radio Computing Services of Australia (RCS) for a consideration of $500,000 cash plus the payment of dividends and loans.” destra continues to maintain a strategic relationship with Musicpoint which allows for priority promotion of its independent artists including the recently acquired Rajon Music Group.
The acquisitions were made for a total of 1.2 million destra shares.
As announced last week, destra Media has expanded its MP3 Music network division by launching into eight new markets (USA, UK, NZ, UK, Canada, Spain, Italy & France) as the world's first provider of multi-channel MP3 music download service. The multi-channel services are already available in Australia via the web and the country’s largest 3G operator 3 mobile through a $3 per month subscription service. Through the company’s partnership with Intel, its music service is now also accessible via the television with Intel Viiv technology-based PCs.
In February 2006, MP3.com.au was awarded the prestigious Hitwise Online Performance Award for the # 1 website among internet users in the 'Entertainment - Multimedia' category.