Now this is only a rumor, and to be perfectly honest, not one I really believe._ However, TechCrunch, which is owned by AOL, is reporting that Microsoft is considering buying Winamp & Shoutcast._ Winamp is media playing software for Windows and Android devices that AOL picked up through its $80 million acquisition of Nullsoft in 1999._ Nullsoft also developed Shoutcast which is a cross platform propriety streaming media software. AOL is currently in the process of shutting down both Winamp and Shoutcast._ With the increasing popularity of Spotify, Pandora, ITunes, etc is seems to make little sense that Microsoft would want either piece of software._ Spotify recently raised $250 million valuing the company around ~$4 billion, greater than AOL’s entire market cap._ However, it is important to remember Microsoft did buy over a billion dollars in patents from AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and then proceeded to sell some of them to Facebook._ There may be some patents in play which Microsoft feels are important to add to its intellectual property...

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