Ready for Launch: the Development of Yahoo's music website

A few years ago Launch music magazine was bought by Yahoo. Its website, previously known as launch.com transformed into music.yahoo.com. Until a few days ago I hadn't been on launch.com in over a year. I remembered that it's name had changed and I was worried that it would be found at a new web address, one I didn't know. However, when I typed launch.com into my web browser it redirected me to music.yahoo.com sans conflict. This action got me thinking about companies bought out by another, which lead me back to the article we read tonight about Time Warner and AOL. I'm interested to know what motivations companies generally have for buying out or merging with another. For AOL and Time Warner the goal appeared to be a compilation of two large media companies with different specialties, joined by the common purpose of advancing the oh-so-hip-internet. Was money the real object of this merger? Why would a company like Yahoo buy out a music magazine? Launch.com barely resembles the site it once was. What was nice about Launch was its simplicity. A user typed in the name of a video and then could watch it, for free, as many times as they wanted. There were no subscriptions or emails or any conspicuous or annoying advertising. Now yahoo.music.com is an overly flashy, pop-music centered site that in no way embodies simplicity or ease. The first half of it, the "above the fold" section is filled half way with circulating ads, advertising Mariah Carey's "Diva Moments" and American Idol. The purple color of Yahoo Music's symbol (a pair of headphones with a Y on them), adorning the site, is another testament to the change launch has undergone. One thing I have noticed is that Yahoo has managed to procure interviews with famous musicians and live performances exclusive to Yahoo, a feat that Launch was not able to achieve. I wonder how Yahoo justified changing Launch so much. They did buy the company, but how did they maintain the demographic viewing Launch.com without angering a lot of loyal fans? Had I known Launch was being sold I would have worried about the outcome of its acquisition by such a large media system. I wonder what the site viewer statistics have been since the change, and what the Demographic has transformed into. Overall, I'm wondering how companies like AOL, who seemed to be in more power than Time Warner, and Yahoo, combine with or buy other companies without chasing away fans of the old company or without changing the Demographic. Do these companies think about demographics before buying or changing an acquisition, deciding whether or not they plan to take a new spin on the Demographic or not? Are they looking to expand their demographic with new acquisitions or buy up and control a specific demographic, such as teenage pop lovers.