Musicmaker.com Looking for New Opportunities

Musicmaker.com (http://www.musicmaker.com) saidit is exploring their options and has hired investment bank Allen & Company to advise them on merger and acquisition opportunities.

Although musicmaker.com has agreements and relationships with many companies, it has yet to strike it big with anyone. Musicmaker.com does have a five-yearexclusive music license agreement with EMI and EMI took a 36 percent equity stake in Musicmaker. Other deals include Columbia House, America Online.

What is pushing this along is the recent AOL/Time Warner deal and the merger between CDNow and Columbia House, says Bob Bernardi, musicmaker's chairman. "The trend indicates a growing consolidation of musiccontent among major and independent record labels and the emergence ofbroadband technology as the key driver behind consumer popularity for digitaldelivery of music on the Internet. Allen & Company is the preeminentinvestment banker in the music and entertainment industry and will serve asour exclusive financial advisor as we move forward in this explosive market."