BizJournals Portfolio
Home >   Business Views, Opinions and Blogs >   Business Blogs >   Tech Observer >  

Best Buy Snaps Up Napster For 121 Million

Tech Observer

by Laura Rich
Main
Business Social Networking, the Next Generation   Mobile Music War: You Can See It Coming

Recent Blog Posts

Links

Sep 15 2008 11:34am EDT

Best Buy Snaps Up Napster for $121 Million

Sam Gustin notes: Just under a decade ago, Napster was a rebel file-sharing service operating out of a college dorm room. Soon, it will be a digital appendage of a big box retailer.

This morning, Best Buy announced that it is buying Napster for $121 million, or $54 million net of Napster's cash and investments. At $2.65 per share, that's almost double what Napster's stock closed at on Friday.

"This transaction offers Best Buy a recognized platform for enhancing our capabilities in the digital media space and building new, recurring relationships with customers," said Brian Dunn, president of Best Buy, said in a statement.

Napster's 140 Los Angeles-based employees will not face "significant" changes the company said. The deal will close in the fourth quarter of this year.

For Best Buy, this is a good move, if for no other reason than it gets a recognized digital music brand for what amounts to loose change compared to its $40 billion in annual revenue. □

Laura Rich is a co-founder of Recessionwire, which provides news, advice, perspective and humor about the recession and the recovery.

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.


Connect With Portfolio.com
Like Portfolio on Facebook

Come on, like us—you know you want to.

Follow Portfolio on Twitter

Follow us and if you're an innovative entrepreneur, we'll return the favor.

The Mix

Today's top stories, conversation starters, and the back nine business bites.

spotlight on

Slideshows

500 Startups Hits New York

Dave McClure's brainchild makes its way to New York and introduces East Coast money folks to some intriguing new companies. View Slideshow