More details are now surfacing on the expected buyout of iLike by MySpace, perhaps a less exciting tale for flatter times.  The top-line valuation was initially pegged at $20 million by TechCrunch, and now, the Wall Street Journal has spliced that figure into a payment to stakeholder Ticketmaster ($8 million) and retention packages ($6 million) for various employees including founders Ali and Hadi Partovi.  On the retention component, payouts would only happen after a period of years, at least according to the Journal.

This is hardly the exit that the Partovi brothers were imagining in 2006, though the duo has reportedly been shopping the company for some time.  Indeed, industry executives speaking to Digital Music News regard the $20 million purchase as completely unimpressive, especially considering a broader funding level of nearly $17 million.  Others, including Last.fm, have commanded far bigger purses.

Incidentally, other companies were rumored to also be considering iLike, depending on the source.  The list includes Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and even Activision Blizzard.  Perhaps the real drama begins after the purchase, when Facebook finds itself hosting an application owned by one of its biggest rivals.