Digital entrepreneur and Destra founder, Domenic Carosa has salvaged the founding core asset of Destra, MP3.com.au, the advertising backed music portal he founded 10 years ago.
As flagged by Lexicon Partners and the new Destra board in August, following a four month review of the company, the company has decided to exit all of the businesses within the entertainment division, as quickly as possible.
Carosa finalised the transaction this week for an undisclosed sum. “It’s a great asset and it has a lot of potential, particularly as music companies are finally embracing the MP3 format-its only taken ten years.”
Carosa, who was ousted from Destra in April said that the portal, which was founded originally as a site for independent artists to post and monetise their music for free, would undergo a strategic review, “focussing on re-energising the business and advertising deals.” Over the last week Carosa has instigated discussions with key stakeholders across music, content and digital distribution arenas and claims the response has been very positive. Along with the assts of the company he has secured former employee Dick Coates as site manager.
Carosa concedes that he started the MP3.com.au business ahead of its time, when it was listed on the ASX in May 2000. It was forged with the intent to aggregate content from independent artists on a website, giving them access to users and potential customers, creating an online community of music lovers and Australia’s first legal music download service. It came “out of the notion of disintermediation and putting power back in control of the artist”. He is heartened now that the market has caught up with labels legitimately selling music in MP3 formats and portals and social networking sites such as BigPond and MySpace supporting the legitimate sale of music online in accessible formats.
While the entrepreneur will continue with plans to invest in a wide range of “up-start” digital companies, he will be focussing on getting MP3.com.au running. “It’s not a full time role but I’m rolling up my sleeves and actively looking for similar complimentary assets to ramp up the business.”
Meanwhile, Destra has also quietly divested discount DVD and CD company Payless Entertainment for an undisclosed sum, to its four man management team. CEO Mark Hurdis, who has been with the company for 9 years, confirmed the finalisation of the transaction stating that he was looking forward to expanding the business now that the company is “less restrained.”
Digital Media understands that the Destra Music division which includes dance label Central Station Records is also close to being sold with two bidders in the fray. Discount DVD company Rajon and world music distributor MRA have yet to garner meaningful offers with sources suggesting that the may be close to being wound down. Lexicon Partners were unavailable for comment.
