Tag Archives: Napster
A Look At Napster Through The Years [GALLERY]
Between 1999-2000, Napster revolutionized the way that people were sharing music on the Internet. The service was a big wake-up call for the RIAA and the lawsuits started pouring in against Napster shortly after the service gained in popularity. Since then Napster was acquired by Best Buy and then sold to Rhapsody. Now Rhapsody is going to be merged officially into their on-demand music service, which will be the end of the Napster brand.
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Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker Working On New Video Chat Company Called Yo
[Left: Shawn Fanning, Right: Sean Parker]
Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker is best known for working together on Napster. Sean Parker was referred to as a co-founder in Napster in the movie The Social Network, but he was an early employee in the music sharing company that Shawn Fanning founded. Now the two are working together on a new video chat project called Yo.
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Categories Napster, Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning, Yo
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Napster Makes A Come-Back In The Form Of An iOS Application!
Remember Napster? It was the music sharing service that was created by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker in 1999 and ended up shutting down after the RIAA went after them for copyright violations.
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Categories Apple App Store, Apple Inc., Best Buy, Napster, Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning
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Napster’s $10 Million Offer For The Pirate Bay Gets Rejected
Global Gaming Factory made an offer to buy out The Pirate Bay for $7 million about a month ago. That deal is expected to close soon, but right out of left field another offer for The Pirate Bay has been made.
The offer came from John Fanning, the uncle of Napster founder Shawn Fanning. John Fanning is the former CEO of Napster. And Napster was bought out by Best Buy in September 2008 for $121 million.
The Pirate Bay turned down the offer shortly after GGF CEO Hans Pandeya and Fanning discussed the deal in London. GGF also received a $15 million offer from an unnamed Russian company. That would more than double GGF’s acquisition investment instantly.
“The basis for a legal site has been placed and contracts are expected to be concluded shortly with a leading player in the entertainment industry. The development of the company is very positive, and goes as planned,” stated Pandeya.
Napster Proxy Battle Ended By Best Buy’s $121 Million Acquisition
The proxy battle for control of Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS) has been ended through the form of an acquisition. Richfield, Minnesota based retailer Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) has bought the digital music download company for $121 million. The agreement is that Best Buy would buy out all of Napster’s stock at a price of $2.65 per share in cash. The transaction will close in the 4th quarter.
Through the acquisition, Best Buy will gain control of Napster’s 700,000 subscribers, the web platform behind the company, and the mobile platform. Napster CEO Chris Gorog and other senior members of the company will stay on board with Napster for an agreed amount of time.
“This transaction offers Best Buy a recognized platform for enhancing our capabilities in the digital media space and building new, recurring relationships with customers,” stated Brian Dunn, President and COO of Best Buy. “Over time we hope to strengthen our offerings to consumers, who we believe will increasingly seek devices and solutions that enable them to access their content wherever, whenever and however they want.”
Prior to the acquisition, three of Napster’s shareholders were in a proxy battle to have the board ousted. These three individuals were Perry H. Rod, Thomas Sailors, and Kavan P. Singh. But then Napster hired UBS to solicit an acquisition.
Napster generated revenue of about $127.5 million in 2008. This was a 15% increase from 2007. Shawn Fanning should be proud. The company he started in college is still worth something today, even 8 years after the dot com bubble crash.
Categories Best Buy, Napster
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Napster Hires UBS To Solicit An Acquisition
Napster, Inc. (NASDAQ:NAPS) has hired UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) to help them with their proxy battle and to solicit an acquisition. Napster is a small competitor of iTunes and Amazon.com and was the talk of the tech town in the late 90′s/early 2000′s.
There are three shareholders that are looking to have the current Board of Napster ousted. Perry H. Rod, Thomas Sailors, and Kavan P. Singh are the three shareholders that are having a proxy battle with the current Board. Napster’s annual shareholder meeting is taking place on September 18. The Board is seeking to have Richard J. Boyko, Philip J. Holthouse and Robert Rodin re-elected.
The letter to shareholders is available after the jump.
Categories Napster, UBS, UBS Investment Bank, Union Bank of Switzerland
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Active Napster Shareholders Believe Company Is Worth At Least $280 Million
In May 2007, Last.FM was acquired by CBS for $280 million. Based on that acquisition price, major active shareholders in Napster Inc. (NASDAQ:NAPS) argue that the company should be worth just as much if not more. The shareholders that have been pushing for management shifting and strategy changes at Napster are Perry H. Rod, Thomas Sailors, and Kavan P. Singh.Â
Napster actually has over 700,000 paying customers, yet their market value is zero (market cap of about $69 million minus their saleable assets). The reason why Napster is trading low is because of a “lack of confidence in governance” stated the shareholders.
Last.FM was a private company with a close-knit community of users when they were acquired. Napster is a public company that was a has-been music sharing site in the early 2000′s back when it was making Metallica and Dr. Dre mad and Shawn Fanning was one of the most well known people in the tech industry. CBS acquired Last.FM because they were ramping up their Radio services and even signed a partnership with AOL. Last.fm currently has over 21 million active users in 200 countries.Â
Should Napster be worth close to $280 million? I’m not an active shareholder, but I’d have to say no because their user-base just isn’t that big.Â
[Source: paidContent]
Categories Napster
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Napster Now Has 6 Million DRM-Free MP3s In Their Catalog
“It’s great that we have finally gotten here,” stated Chris Gorog, Chairman and CEO of Napster. “It is really the beginning of a level playing field, which I think is essential for Napster, but also for the health of the digital music business in general.”
Announcement
Napster Inc. (NASDAQ:NAPS) has announced today that they will start selling MP3s. Prior to the announcement Napster was selling “all-you-can-eat” streaming music, but selling MP3s may enable the company to attract iPod users and others that prefer DRM-free music.Â
Napster will be selling the MP3s for $0.99 each. Amazon.com and iTunes are currently the dominant players for DRM-free online music sales and they sell MP3s for roughly the same price.
Napster has 6 million MP3 tracks in their library while Amazon.com has 5 million. As of March 31, Napster has 760,000 subscribers. Napster will continue to sell streaming subscription services despite a shift in their strategy for selling music download files.
Last month, Apple beat Wal-Mart in becoming the biggest music retailer through iTunes. Apple sold over 4 billion songs since 2003.
Different Perspectives
While the information above was simply put together from a press release, below are some of the perspectives from the blogosphere:
* TechCrunch wrote: “I’m having trouble getting excited about it.”Â
* CNET wrote “This is a huge day for digital music.”
Pulse 2.0 Perspective
I believe that both CNET and TechCrunch have great points. While this is a huge day for digital music because now there are alternatives, Napster simply doesn’t have a large user-base. Nor do they have a powerful brand to instantly win over new customers.Â
The consumers that Napster wants to win most likely already own iPods. And to use an iPod, you need iTunes, a Napster competitor. It’ll be an uphill battle and the only way for Napster to win through it’s MP3 offerings is to prove that customers need them. Only then will they be able to convince skeptics like TechCrunch that we as consumers should switch to Napster.
Information Source:
[1] Reuters: Napster rolls out MP3 store in challenge to iTunes by Yinka Adegoke
Categories Apple Inc., Napster
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Social Network imeem Buys Music Distributor, SNOCAP
“imeem shares SNOCAP’s focus on enabling artists to promote their music in new ways,” stated CEO of imeem, Rusty Rueff.
Music streaming company, imeem has announced recently that they have acquired SNOCAP, a Digital Rights Management company started by Shawn “Napster” Fanning. SNOCAP owns their own digital registry platform that allows independent artists to control their music distribution. SNOCAP has over 7 million songs in their digital registry.
Financial details were undisclosed.
imeem spent the past year ramping up advertisements and partnerships. In 2007, imeem made deals with Universal, EMI, Warner Brothers, and Sony. While SNOCAP has been MySpace’s partner for spreading independent music. Through the acquisition the COO of SNOCAP, Ali Aydar will be joining imeem as VP of Operations.
Information Source:
[1] MarketingVOX: Music Streaming Service imeem Buys Indie DRM Firm SNOCAP
Categories imeem, Napster, SNOCAP
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Ruckus Network Raises $10 Million in Funding From Anschutz and Columbia
William Gorog should be worried. Gorog is the CEO of Napster and their direct competitor, Ruckus Network[1] just raised $10 million in funding. This is Ruckus’ second round of investment and the funding was led by Anschutz Investment Company LLC and Columbia Capital[2].
Ruckus’ membership grew 60% during the Spring 2007 semester and signed contracts with 40 new schools. Currently the company has 120 memberships. Ruckus service is exclusive to those who have a .edu e-mail address.
“Today’s funding announcement caps what is arguably the most significant, successful and exciting period to date for Ruckus,“ stated Mike Bebel, the CEO of Ruckus Network, Inc. “Ruckus has become the digital entertainment service of choice for college students and administrators alike, creating considerable interest among advertisers and marketers who recognize the vast potential Ruckus fulfills. With this investment round, we are poised for even greater growth.“
Ruckus established partnerships with OneNet and Merit, who are the Internet Service Providers for educational institutions Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, etc.
The new funding will be used to develop further advertisement partnerships. Ruckus also provides full length movies for streaming.
[1] www.ruckus.com
[2] www.colcap.com