I really hope this doesn't affect the service that Last.fm provides. Personally, I'd rather see a company like Google pick up Last.fm. On the other hand, though, I think Last.fm is providing an excellent service and would really rather see them remain their own company so they can keep innovating. I hate big companies that care more about stockholder's pockets than the services they provide.

At any rate, I wonder what the real motive behind this kind of purchase is. Is it to make money or is it to smother innovation? I'd be really interested to see what other's think.

barf. I really don't want viacom having 3 years worth of data on what I've been listening to.