Last we heard, Winamp would be closing its doors after being more than 15 years in existence, and if you have ever used one of those early Intel Pentium computers back in the day, well this is undoubtedly pretty sad news, an end of an era, so to speak. Well it turns out that perhaps Winamp might not be completely dead after all, at least according to the folks at TechCrunch who are reporting on a rumor that it is possible that Microsoft is looking to acquire both Winamp and SHOUTcast from AOL, although the reasoning behind it is unclear. It is possible that Winamp and SHOUTcast both have patents that Microsoft could license out.
For those unfamiliar, SHOUTcast is also a media too developed by Nullsoft, the folks behind Winamp originally. It was a piece of software that allowed cross platform proprietary streaming, although given the popularity of other streaming services, such as Pandora, iTunes Radio, Spotify, and etc., we’re not sure if the platform still has what it takes to compete in today’s market. In any case like we said, this is only a rumor for now so be sure to take it with a grain of salt, but hypothetically speaking, what could Microsoft want with Winamp and SHOUTcast?