Reigncom acquires MPMan.com

[SemiLOOSE]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/20040...090609061.html

MP3 player developer acquired

ReignCom Co., a global leader in the MP3 player market, is taking over MPMan.com, the company that developed the first MP3 player.
The company said yesterday that it will spend about 3.4 billion won ($2.9 million) to acquire 96.5 percent of the venture firm. Last May, it was selected as the preferred company for takeover by MPMan.com's creditors and signed a memorandum of understanding. MPMan.com was a leading MP3 player manufacturer until it went bankrupt in July last year.
Significantly, ReignCom will not only buy the company, but patent rights as well. MPMan.com holds the international patent rights to the core technology used in MP3 players ― playing music on portable players using MPEG coded digital music files ― and on the equipment needed to play it. The patents are registered not only in Korea, but also in the United States and China.
The industry is particularly interested in what ReignCom will do once it becomes the owner of the patents. Until now, the Korea Portable Audio Consortium, made up of MP3 player industry participants, has been very sensitive about having MPMan.com bought by a single company. Sixteen companies had been jointly pursuing the takeover of MPMan.com to prevent the patent rights from going to just one company.
Regarding future royalties, ReignCom said that it will try to be fair. "Our company paid a lot because of those patent rights. In that sense, we will try to make fair demands of other companies," said PR director Kim Dong-hwan.

patents of mpman.com
Patent for core manufacturing technologies about MP3 player in US.
Patent registered for portable sound reproduction equipment using MPEG
Patent registered for portable MP3 player with various functions
Patent registered no.366243 "A recorder for computer music file data and technology of Data Playing and the related device Patent No : 1998-0034268

how did it go bankrupt?

[ManchesterUnited4Life]

Dunno - but I'm glad I jumped ship

Have had 6 of their players including the 'First Ever Portable MP3 Player in Your Pocket' the MPMan F20 (which I still have ), right up to the F70, and can say with confidence, that I would recommend their players (since they nearly ALL Flash based) to anyone.

Coincidentally, I bought the F70 last July, and sold it as soon as I got the iHP - so it would have been one of the last decent players to have been made by MPMan - I don't particularly like their new range, especially as the battery life has gone DOWN from the 50/100 hours I was used to ...

An excellent move on behalf of Reigncom, and one likely to see some v. interesting products in the future - at least they'll have some excellent programmers on board

*MU4L drools at prospect of MPMan design bundled with iRiver features* :P

[winty]

Veeeery interesting. Thanks both for the information!

[jonmdavis]

My F20 is still proving useful. The belt clip from the case works great krazy glued to my H120 case!

[FlameGrilled]

I still have an F20 floating around here

I always liked it, because it was about the size of an old text radio pager i once had, and did indeed make a neat one-album player.

I'd love to see a modern hi-capacity come out similar to to.. as a budget player-only device.

Would then leave the Perstel Chic MP10 for dead on looks and robustness :P

For ref - until very recently, Chic Mp10 was the budget priced mp3 deck obtainable over the counter.