Sony Corporation of America has announced that it has signed a merger agreement with Gracenote, Inc and will pay around $260 million for the company, that used to be known as CDDB, in a deal expected to go through late May.

"Gracenote is a global leader in technology and services for digital media identification, enrichment, and recommendation, and these capabilities will be essential to the next wave of innovation in content, services, and consumer electronics", said Tim Schaaff, SCA senior vice president, software.

"Sony sees tremendous growth potential in developing Gracenote as a separately run business unit, and by broadly embracing Gracenote's platforms, Sony expects to significantly enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service, and device initiatives."

Gracenote's existing business (including powering iTunes music search functionality) will continue to operate separately but as a wholly owned Sony subsidiary, Gracenote will continue to develop new technologies in existing as well as new areas of operation, some presumably for Sony.