Acquisition of Software Maker Is Closed
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
AMSTERDAM, Jan. 3 (Bloomberg News) — The Sony Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and other investors said today that they had acquired about 93 percent of the InterTrust Technologies Corporation, a software maker, for $453 million.
The Fidelio Acquisition Company, a buyout firm owned by Stephens Acquisition in addition to Sony and Royal Philips, said it had received tenders for 92 million shares of InterTrust.
The companies offered $4.25 a share in November to gain software that protects digital material like music and films.
Each remaining share in InterTrust will be converted into the right to receive $4.25, and the company will become a wholly owned unit of Fidelio. The European Union approved the acquisition last month.
InterTrust, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., holds 26 patents on hardware and software techniques. It makes programs that control how consumers buy, download and copy material. Users could, for example, be allowed to download a movie one or more times or be allowed to listen to music but not record it.
Record companies and filmmakers are trying to protect their copyrights as illegal downloading from the Internet cuts into sales.
Philips, Europe's largest consumer electronics maker, and Sony are also seeking to increase sales of the devices that are used to view and listen to the material.
