GrindEFX

Rumours have been flying around all week but Myspace made it official yesterday (August 19th), it has bought the online music sharing service iLike for a reported $20 million.

“The iLike acquisition advances our relentless pursuit of innovation and the need to create new distributed social experiences in music and beyond,” said Owen Van Natta, Chief Executive Officer of MySpace. “We are deeply committed to bringing world class talent into all areas of the company and this acquisition demonstrates our focus on this objective.”

The obvious question we’re all asking is why Facebook didn’t pursue the company, with iLike being an integral part of the music experience on Facebook one would assume its services were of much more value to them than to Myspace, which has Myspace Music. Over 10 million Facebook users use iLike every month. According to TechCrunch Facebook did indeed put in an offer for the company, as well as Amazon.

It will be interesting to see what part iLike plays in Myspace’s uncertain future, Owen Van Natta has said it will not be intergrated into Myspace Music. iLike users have been told the site will remain unaffected by the deal.

“MySpace’s strengths have been a long-time source of inspiration for iLike,” said Hadi Partovi, President of iLike. “Combining MySpace’s existing platform, reach and resources with iLike’s syndication network and social discovery tools creates the potential for truly exciting innovation and commerce across any vertical entertainment category—our combined assets now span all the major social networks. I’m enthusiastic about what this combination will mean for our users, artists, advertisers, and our staff. We are beginning an exciting new journey together.”