Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Liquid Audio: Better off dead?

Posted by chrisd on from the well-yeah dept.

mgeneral writes "It seems so for the shareholders. Liquid Audio, had only $150,000 in revenue but managed to lose $5.6 million last quarter. Its main asset: A pile of cash. In fact, so much cash, that if they close the doors, they could pay back the shareholders more per share than the current stockprice...and thats exactly what some investors want them to do." We've run stories on Liquid Audio before...

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. They still exist? by saihung · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would be refreshing to see the directors of a company admit that they have no idea how they can make any money and return whatever their investors ponied up. The shareholders own the company, and if there's not even a glimmer of hope of the company ever being profitable (with Liquid I'm not sure that there ever was, but that's a separate issue) then the best thing is to admit defeat, cut your losses while there's still anything to cut, and close your doors.

  2. The Arguement by evilviper · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The argument is that the business isn't going to work because there are too many competitors who do what Liquid Audio does but do it for free.


    "Their business model doesn't work."


    So, umm... Why did they invest in the company in the first place?
    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  3. They had revenue?! by eddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    They had $150,000 in revenue?! That's insane. What did they do, rent out part of the office?

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  4. Re:The scoop by JanneM · · Score: 5, Insightful
    For a public company, their responsibility is to make their owners/investors happy, and those are the stockholders. If the stockholders determine they want a profit, that's what the board is obliged to do. If the stockholders only priority is to have all company assets painted light blue, the board will hire painters. The stockholders can force a stockholder meeting (or simply wait until the yearly regular one), and vote to kill off the company and divide up the assets. They could also vote away the board of directors, realign the company as a healing-crystal business or whatever.

    If a majority of votes (where the needed majority is regulated in the company charter) decides it is better to just throw in the towel than to continue, that's what will happen.

    /Janne

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  5. Re:Ogg Vorbis by Neon+Spiral+Injector · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Liquid Audio files are fully Digital Rights Managed, I have one on my harddisk that I can no longer listen to, caues something changed on my computer.

    The song sucked anyway, but the ammount of hassle it took to get the player installed (along with some funky sound card drivers (I think they are installed to try to keep listeners from playing to the harddisk instead of speakers) was increadable.

    I'll never get another song in that format.

  6. Re:Ogg Vorbis by Artifex · · Score: 5, Informative

    what are the technical leverages that Liquid Audio claims to offer vs. free competitors such as Ogg Vorbis

    Pretty much just DRM, which means the music industry was happy to use it in promos for new releases, etc.

    --
    Get off my launchpad!