A little nosing around on a holiday weekend turns up this detail from someone knowledgeable about the MySpace Music-Snocap deal: no money is changing hands but Fox Interactive Media/MySpace.com stands to gain equity in Snocap as it drives distribution. More distribution = more equity. It’s an interesting twist but fits in with FIM’s varied approach to dealmaking.
Update: FIM president Ross Levinsohn popped up from vacation long enough for a brief email interview. Asked about financial arrangements and why FIM didn’t just acquire Snocap outright, Levinsohn replied: “This is a win-win for both. It’s great for users of MySpace as a way to make money for their work. We are wholly focused on enabling the MySpace platform for its users. Snocap will help us provide more value for our audience and for FIM overall.” Something tells me Levinsohn can use all the rest he can get—my guess is he has lots of irons to pull out of lots of fires.
You can track all the deals in our dedicated FIM archive.