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Napster Goes to the Chopping Block

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 11:10 AM - by

Napster, the music subscription service that started life as an unlicensed music sharing system, is up for sale. Forbes reports that the company hired the investment banking firm UBS to negotiate a possible sale. Napster claims there has been some "third party interest" in buying the company.

Napster has been unable to turn a profit, or to make a dent in Apple's iTunes Store - the current market leader in legit music downloads. Most recently, Napster unsuccessfully tried its hand at advertising-based music streaming.

The company's future looks even more bleak now that Microsoft is launching its own Zune music download and subscription service. Prior to announcing its closed-system Zune player and download combo, Microsoft highlighted Napster as a partner, and at one point even featured the service in its Windows Media Player application. In the past year, Microsoft began highlighting MTV's music service over Napster.

Now that Microsoft is competing directly with Napster, the company has little chance of maintaining its dwindling user base, making it a prime candidate for a bargain-basement catch. That is, if UBS can swing the deal.

9 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:16 pm

Good riddance... take that Roxio!

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:43 pm

WOW... remember all the Wintrolls/Apple-haters last year, telling us that Apple was 'doomed' because Napster and its subscription model was going to kick ass? Talk about some serious wishful thinking along the 'Nostradumbass' line.

We laughed at them then, and we're still laughing now. Buh-bye Napster, thanks for playing.

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 612 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:42 pm

I believe that's actually the AUCTION block. Though maybe the chopping block would be a more appropriate place for it.

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macslut said:

member since 03 Sep 2004 with 61 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:56 pm

Guest wrote:
Good riddance... take that Roxio!

Roxio doesn't own Napster anymore. Napster is on NASDAQ as NAPS.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:27 pm

One question: just what does Napster have to sell?

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LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3547 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:59 pm

One answer: nowt.

Napster tunes, no sale, but rent

Songs to let, way more than fifty cents

Not for Mac, nothin’ to show, just debts,

You’re better off with cigarettes

Ah, but…take yourself off to iTunes

Fill your iPod till there’s no more room

You own what you’ve paid for, and this means:

Songs for the road

[With sincere apologies to Roger Miller]

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:11 pm

Adios! Hope you enjoyed the ride!

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:31 pm

gslusher wrote:
One question: just what does Napster have to sell?

Its brand name recognition? That's about it, and it isn't worth much anymore.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:29 am

will they keep the name napster when someone buys them? I can't believe the napster we've all used when we were younger is failing so bad. they tried real hard after the lawsuits too. saw tons of commercials for them, even that www.napstergirl.com thing was redeeming.

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