Best Buy acquires Napster for $121 million

It's been a long, tumultuous road for Napster, but the music service once loathed by James Alan Hetfield will soon be property of Best Buy. Announced this morning, the retail giant has agreed to buy Napster Inc. for a staggering $121 million, $67 million of which will be cold, hard cash. The deal is set to close in Q4 of this year, and it will include Napster's "700,000 digital entertainment subscribers, web-based customer-service platform and mobile capabilities." According to Best Buy president Brian Dunn, it intends to use "Napster's capabilities and digital subscriber base to reach new customers with an enhanced experience for exploring and selecting music and other digital entertainment products over an increasing array of devices." We're still remaining calm for the moment, but if Best Buy starts buying up unprecedented amounts of dark fiber without explanation, we'll go ahead and assume it really is trying to take over the world.

[THJ @ Sep 15th 2008 10:47AM]

Wow, isn't that like 3x the price of what Motorola is trying to pawn off their mobile division for?

[Kspraydad @ Sep 15th 2008 10:47AM]

Now I'll need a Monster Cable to listen to my Napster account.

:(

[BigD145 @ Sep 15th 2008 12:11PM]

You also need to wade through 10 pages of ads and at least 20 popups.

[Uchiha Sasuke @ Sep 15th 2008 12:43PM]

Don't forget they'll try to shove a warranty down your throat for each music purchase.

[who? @ Sep 15th 2008 10:48AM]

My new iTunes!

Please switch to no DRM, please switch to no DRM, please sw...

[Vanillacide @ Sep 15th 2008 11:24AM]

In your dreams mate, didn't you read about the new DRM group on Engadget yesterday ... one of the star players was Best Buy.

Now we know why.

[who? @ Sep 15th 2008 1:08PM]

Yeah, well best buy sells iPhones and iPods now, so suck on that!

[El Taco @ Sep 15th 2008 6:34PM]

napster is already no DRM. You can buy DRM-free MP3's for $.99 each. There's no way they would do their subscription service no DRM though cuz then you could just cancel your subscription and keep them. Not gonna happen

[ReD-DaWg-OnE @ Sep 15th 2008 10:55PM]

One word... Tunebite

[Callum Bush @ Sep 15th 2008 10:54AM]

the rumour is that Best Buy are trying to buy the Hadron Collider

[kal326 @ Sep 15th 2008 10:58AM]

If people complained that iTunes was charging to much for some stuff, just wait till you see the new Best Buy pricing on Napster.

[Blank Frank @ Sep 15th 2008 11:02AM]

Lars is the one who took it to Napster. For the people.

[xcrunk @ Sep 15th 2008 11:28AM]

Thanks Lars...just got my copy of Death Magentic via Torrent.

Checks in the mail.

[Totalfixation @ Sep 15th 2008 11:01AM]

For 121 Million that's cheap. If the subscriber base is even 1/4 of paying customers. I'm sure they can easily make that back in no time.

[telepheedian @ Sep 15th 2008 11:31AM]

When they say "subscribers", they aren't talking about the amount of user accounts on the site, they are talking about the number of paying customers to their paid subscription service, which costs at minimum $10 a month. It really is a steal for Best Buy, they'll make up for this investment pretty quickly, and they gain some good branding for their less-successful online music store.

[PJ @ Sep 15th 2008 11:05AM]

Just to clarify...they are actually buying it all in cash, but they are netting out the 67MM in cash and liquid assets that Napster currently holds. So they are paying $121MM in cash to buy it, but are also receiving $67MM that Napster has, so the total cost to them is really only appx. $54MM

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/companies/bc.apfn.bestbuy.napster.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008091509

[JAmerican @ Sep 15th 2008 11:04AM]

WOW!

[Evan @ Sep 15th 2008 11:12AM]

$67million for 700,000 subscriber. That's $95 per subscriber! I hope the "platform" is worth it, because the subscriber base sure isn't.

[CraigJ @ Sep 15th 2008 1:14PM]

They'll make it up on volume!

Welcome to1999.

[John @ Sep 15th 2008 11:20AM]

Is Best Buy the new Wal Mart?

[dBs @ Sep 15th 2008 11:22AM]

See, this is why I will never buy DRM music. Corperate buy outs, take overs, and going out of business happen ALL the time (especially to these companies) and every time it happens there is no gaurentee that your paid for music/movies will be good any longer.

[Cagrino @ Sep 15th 2008 11:31AM]

Tell me about it. I'm sitting on a large stash of Real music that I can't play. ...and they are still in business!!

Trying to get help authenticating the music you've already paid for is a joke.

[billiam247 @ Sep 15th 2008 12:08PM]

Napster is currently selling their music as DRM-free MP3 files. I bought And Justice for All from Napster a couple months ago, more than anything just for irony. Their selection and interface was pretty good, along with their pricing, but now that their new corporate overlord is Worst Buy, no more Napster for me. If I want to buy MP3s Zune Marketplace has a very good selection (yes, even MP3 files) and doesn't censor albums clearly marked "Explicit Content." (I'm looking at YOU Amazon...)

[Cerberus @ Sep 15th 2008 12:42PM]

I guess you've never heard of FairUse...?

I use Napster since it's $15/mth for unlimited download; however, the only annoying this about it is that new songs have to be payed for (you actually have to pay $1/song in addition to your monthly subscription)... blah.

Oh yah, and no DRM.

[Big John @ Sep 15th 2008 11:25AM]

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out with Best Buy's Apple partnership, especially selling the iPhone.

I wonder if they're going to push Napster incredibly hard in the store, or just want to leave Napster be (they're leaving the HQ and personnel intact) and let them advertise on their own, reaping the profits for themselves.

[rjcusick @ Sep 15th 2008 11:33AM]

Booooo

Now I know why Napster discontinued their University Program. Stupid corporate buy-outs.

[MacDoc @ Sep 15th 2008 11:44AM]

Looks like Circuit City may be around after all, at this rate it's Best Buy that will be filling for Chapter 11.

[Matt @ Sep 15th 2008 3:54PM]

Are you kidding me? This has to be one of the most ignorant statements I've heard in a long, long time!! Best Buy could easily stand to lose all of that cash and wouldn't be hurting AT ALL. In the consumer economic crisis electronics retailers actually thrive and flourish due to people staying home and wanting new technology to make them feel better about not vacationing. Best Buy is poised to be a 50 billion dollar a year company within the next two years! Bankruptcy over a ~100 million buyout? You've got to be kidding me.

[Mike O @ Sep 15th 2008 11:58AM]

It's clear that Best Buy is trying to compensate for slowing CD sales. I think Best Buy's play is that Napster will eventually sell MP3's but will spend coin for artist and/or album exclusivity, similar to what Wal-Mart did with AC/DC's new album.

The writing is on the wall for DRM'd music. I was a long time iTunes customer that switched to Amazon for that reason alone. Apple is stupid thinking people will pay more than a dollar for an un-DRM'd track.

[Liam @ Sep 15th 2008 12:03PM]

Most stuff on the iTunes store has no DRM anymore, right?

[telepheedian @ Sep 15th 2008 12:38PM]

Only a small selection, and even then, it's all in AAC format.

[xValentine @ Sep 15th 2008 12:17PM]

I AM THE NAPSTER!


-Seth Green

[ED @ Sep 15th 2008 7:23PM]

"You'll never shut down the real Napster." - Lyle, in The Italian Job

[Sam @ Sep 15th 2008 12:31PM]

It's like the Hindenburg buying the Titanic.

[Cerberus @ Sep 16th 2008 9:32AM]

Torrent is still the way to go... and will be.

[james @ Sep 15th 2008 1:53PM]

as a napster to go customer/fair use user, I am a little concerned by this news. there are already too many songs that can only be purchased, you cant even listen to the whole song untill you buy it, this defeats the purpose of napster. now with best buy in the mix, it can only get worse.

[muller @ Sep 15th 2008 2:07PM]

Best Buy already ha a music service, so to say they are going to jack up napsters prices is crazy. They just want more market share, they aren't going to change the service.

[Josh @ Sep 15th 2008 2:58PM]

why not just use rhapsody, itunes +, or one of the other drm-free sites...

napster has sucked for years now

[mykie @ Sep 15th 2008 3:13PM]

So what does this mean for the years-old Rhapsody/Best Buy partnership?

[inteller @ Sep 15th 2008 4:54PM]

"would you like a protection plan with your digital music purchase?" Om-nom-nom-nom!

[Brian @ Sep 15th 2008 5:41PM]

Best Buy just bought all 700,000 Sansa owners...

Congrats Best Buy :)

[Desimated @ Sep 15th 2008 6:22PM]

This is not the worst news in the world,
it would be must worse for Apple to get 100% market share over the online media market!
then that 99c price tag for songs will go up and up and up!

better there be competition, should keep the music and movies at a sane price point.

[sdipaola @ Sep 15th 2008 9:06PM]

Engadget states "It's been a long, tumultuous road for Napster"

Come on, there is a difference between a name and service. Napster died, Napster is more the farther of torrent sites than anything to do with this. The name napster was simply sold for profit want the group oringal company napster was destroyed by law suits but hopefully engadget users ( if not engadget editorial staff) should know the difference.

[Randy @ Sep 15th 2008 11:12PM]

I just think this is extremely funny, especially considering Circuit City had ties with Napster. Looks like Circuit loses once again...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/categorySpecial.do?catOid=-17142&N=20013218+20013222+20017142

Link if you don't believe me, I got a free 1 year pass when I used to work at Shity city.