Paul Allen

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is not only a software geek. He's also a music geek, something everyone who visits Seattle knows when they stumble upon his Experience Music Project. As part of those two passions, Allen created the DrumCore and KitCore products in order to give songwriters beats and grooves from more than a dozen famous percussionists and drummers. Allen, in fact, created the products to assist with his own songwriting.

Now, the billionaire has sold those two products to Sonoma Wire Works, maker of the RiffWorks and InstantDrummer software.

“Sonoma Wire Works was the unanimous choice of our review team,” said Chris Purcell of Submersible, which previously published the titles. “We particularly appreciated their sincere and enthusiastic presentation here in Seattle. Part of our quest was to find a good home for DrumCore, where it could move up to the next level of technology and market presence. Sonoma Wire Works really resonated with us.”

Allen -- who took a beating on his massive investment in Charter Communications -- has been in a bit of a selling mood lately. His investment arm, Vulcan, unloaded digital video recorder maker Digeo for $20 million. Vulcan also just sold some spectrum licenses in Washington and Oregon to AT&T.

Terms of the DrumCore deal were not disclosed, but it is most likely a pretty small deal. But I am wondering if this part of a bigger garage sale for one of the world's richest men?