Streaming music service Bloom.fm announced yesterday that it’s shutting down, after its main investor pulled out. Now that closure has been delayed, as the UK-based startup searches for a buyer.
“We’ve decided we’re going to run a 7-10 day bidding process to see who wants to buy us. Around a dozen people have expressed interest already, and the process is probably going to be run by our administrators,” CEO Oleg Fomenko told Music Ally this afternoon.
“There is a product and there is a team that can either disappear and go to various different places, or survive. I would rather this had gone completely differently, but if the alternatives are to bury or to live, I’ll choose survival.”
Bloom.fm’s main investor was Russian TV network TNT, which withdrew its support seemingly at exactly the moment when more funding was required, judging by Fomenko’s comments today.
“We’ll see who bites. It has to happen fairly quickly, because we are literally nearly out of cash. But it’s a lot more attractive to a potential buyer because it’s effectively a fire sale,” he said. “If somebody can get Bloom.fm for a fraction of what it is actually worth because of this situation, that’s a pretty good deal.”
Bloom.fm has more than 1.1m registered users in the UK. For the next 7-10 days, they’ll be able to continue using the company’s iPhone and Android apps, although it is not allowing new users to sign up to a paid subscription, due to the uncertainty of being able to provide them with a full month’s service.
Fomenko is keen for more potential buyers to contact him – his email address is oleg.fomenko@bloom.fm – and is optimistic about a positive outcome. “Given the circumstances, anything is better than nothing,” he said. “This team put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this. They deserve more than just the serious drinking session last night and hangovers this morning…”
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