Washington-based Riptopia will greatly expand its retail reach with the acquisition of one of its major competitors, company officials announced Thursday.
Riptopia, a company that specializes in “ripping’ or transferring CDs to digital music players, purchased New York-based RipDigital. The acquisition will further Riptopia’s plans to become a national brand by extending its reach to 28 states and 208 retail locations, including Best Buy and Tweeter locations. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company’s business wasprimarily driven by online orders prior to the deal.
RipDigital founder and CEO Richard Adams will join Riptopia as vice president of Business Development.
“We are thrilled to combine forces with Riptopia,” Adams said. “I look forward to combining RipDigital’s sales channels with Riptopia’s industrial-strength processing facilities to deliver commercial and retail customers the premier service of helping people transition to the digital edge.”
Founded two years ago, Riptopia is one of only a handful of CD-ripping companies.
The company reformats and transfers up to 1,000 CDs to a music player in 48 hours for $1.49 each, according to its standard package deal.
With literally billions of CDs in the hands of consumers throughout the U.S., the CD-ripping industry is a growing one. And 1 in 4 people ages 12 to 21 own an MP3 player, according to Forrester Research.
Riptopia also recently inked two smaller deals to expand its reach. Last month, it signed partnerships with Washington-based MyerEmco and is also rolling out its brand in the high-end electronics store Bang & Olufsen.
