Kazaa BV assets cost Sharman $1m.(acquisition by Sharman Networks Ltd.)(Brief Article)

Online Reporter, The, February, 2005

Sharman Networks paid Kazaa BV about $1 million (600,000 euros) in January 2002 to acquire Kazaa's business including the Web site, accounts receivables, goodwill and intellectual property including the Kazaa desktop software. The deal did not include the FastTrack network software. An Australian court released the previously confidential contract as evidence in the case in which the Australian record labels are accusing Sharman and its business partner Altnet of copyright infringement on a massive scale. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friss, who owned the Dutch-based Kazaa BV, agreed not to work on file-sharing software for three years after Sharman made the deal.

Sharman's lawyer Tony Meagher said that the deal's details should remain confidential, particularly...