MySpace REALLY Likes iLike

TechFlash reports: iLike has been the subject of plenty of speculation in the past few weeks. And now TechCrunch -- citing multiple anonymous sources -- says the Seattle online music startup is close to being acquired by MySpace for $20 million.

If that occurs, the deal would be odd for a number of reasons. For one, the purchase price would not be much greater than the $16.5 million in capital that iLike has raised from Khosla Ventures, Ticketmaster and others over the past three years. It would also be an extremely low value on a company which boasts more than 50 million registered users and 15 million unique visitors per month.

Furthermore, iLike just last week launched a music download store - a major initiative which would be an interesting effort to launch amid acquisition talks. Lastly, iLike is best known as the de facto music service for Facebook -- one of MySpace's main rivals.

In an interview earlier this month, iLike CEO Ali Partovi told TechFlash that the company had been operating at cash flow break even for all of this year. That, he said, provided the company with a certain amount of flexibility.

"Because we've been able to reach financial self sustainability, it is giving us the opportunity to spread our wings and expand from just being what people might have come to know us as to be more and bigger," he said.

That doesn't sound like an entrepreneur who is about to sell out.

TechCrunch says the deal will close this week, but iLike isn't commenting.

"iLike does not have any comment on this unconfirmed rumor," an iLike spokesman tells TechFlash.