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Roxio To Concentrate on Online Music Business
DevGhost writes "Roxio Inc. said on Monday it would change its name to Napster and focus on the money-losing online digital music service, selling its profitable CD and DVD software division to Sonic Solutions for $80 million."
I wonder how many of the board of that company also moved with the profitable portion of the company, leaving the employees and the unpopular directors and managers with the loss making portion?
Napster on the stock ticker... who would have thought that was going to happen 5 years ago?!
Microsoft will buy Ahead/Nero and integrate it into Windows we can call that category dead as well. Roxio - EZCD = t3h b4nkRup+ soonly.
I read the headline and article and thought it had to be April 1st! Really, there's only so much room for so many online music services, with margins that seem rather slim, not sure how many can fit in this small/leaky boat!
CSVB
free ipod and free gmail!
I had to rub my eyes to make sure the news was real... I bet there is a really good story behind this. What does Roxio have that Apple and Microsoft don't? Roxio has links with every CD/DVD hardware manufacturer. It's software is embedded in XP. How does the market for online music compare to that of CD/DVD recording software (hmm, its sort of related...). The answer I bet will be in the Sonic Solutions documentation. What are the caveats to the sale? The folks at Roxio aren't dumb... they've done quite well.
Visit Tim's Journal, yes?
What if Microsoft bundles a DVD/CD - burning program with LongHorn? Then this might not be such a bad idea for Roxio. The software is great but if microsoft is playing the browser-war with burning software then its potentially a good thing for the ROxio company.
Also to consider are new DRM rules. Roxio could have to do major upgrading to the software to enable proper DRM and even then Microsoft/MPAA could decide its not good enough.
What is a great product now does not mean that it will always be the best. You have to admit that CD/DVD burning software is kind of a one-trick-pony-kind-of software that does not have great potential for growth. Sooner or later Microsoft will start to integrate burning capabilities like Apple.
Also another thing to consider is with growing HD sizes CD burning I am assuming is decreasing. also with MP3 players, which I am assuming will lead to MP3 car players, CDr's could potentially.. gasp.. die. Leaving ROxio with a sinking ship.
Just some thoughts as to why they would do this drastic move
I predict in approximately one year Napster will be renamed yet again to Microsoft Music or something to that effect. Microsoft likes to compete, especially with Apple.
Roxio commits corporate suicide. Film at 11...
Nah, they are actually very shrewd and forward-looking. They know that if not now, then eventually something like the INDUCE act will be made law, effectively making illegal CD & DVD burners as well as Roxio's (formerly Adaptec's) popular duping software.
They're just gittin out while the gittin is good, see?
iTMS isn't the first in the download-for-pay market, though. I doubt Apple's leadership would let the store eat through all their money before killing it anyway.
Wishful thinking on your part.
you know, throw/kick the ball as far as you can toward the goal and pray someone on your side makes a great play with it.
"Calculated risk" is indeed a business model. Almost every business that isn't funded by a trust is based on risk of losses. It's not like they are shuttering the profitable business, they are cashing it out and throwing everything into what is obviously a make-or-break play. Maybe CD burners are boring. Maybe there are no great business opportunites left worth fighting over. Maybe someone is rich enough to want to play with some money.
It isn't insane, it's just risky. I happen to think it is insanely risky, but that's just me. Still if I were sitting on a cool $80M with everything to lose and not much to gain I would give myself a nice salary, make a great try at stardom, and if it went down badly I'd buy an island in the South Pacific and retire to study beaches and waves.
And how insane is that, really?
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
Agreed, but I only used EZCD Creator to burn CDs or sessions. Never DirectCD. You are correct. DirectCD, does cause lots of issues on systems.
Some may not agree with this, but it seems to me a somewhat foresighted decision to sell their burning software division, as disk-burning is rapidly being incorporated into free venues, such as online music store software, winamp, etc.. Not to mention windows xp's disk-burning incorporated into the OS. I don't use it, but the masses do whatever happens when they pop in the blank disk. I can't imagine OEM's continuing to pay roxio to include their software either when they will have so many free alternatives, and I won't be surprised if the music stores take a proactive approach to getting their software included with cd burners. (If it isn't already, haven't bought one in a while)
The writing was on the wall, along time ago.
Nero came out with a nicer and more functional product. Adaptec knew this was coming, and made the $$$ when the timing was right. Roxio thought a revamped GUI' and a bunch of unusable clutter, was what the consumer wanted and was wrong. Now the Chicken has come home to roost, and it has lain a big, old fat, egg... Adaptec had a good product @ EZCD v5 and from that point on, it was and still is crap. Nero added mpeg encoding, dvd utilities, audio burning and packet cd writing when EZCD was going through thier company change. Also o top it off they (ahead.de) made it simple to use...NERO didn't break windows operability in the process either. WindowsXP native drag and drop burning is a farce, and it only takes on use of NERO to discover that.
I don't know if Nero makes a version for Apple Products, but I do know Nero is OEM Bundled, with just about every Burner I have purchased, and my friends as well. It's a shame that Roxio is hanging it's finacial Hopes, on the Napster Nail, and I am sure the Next thing we will be hearing is how they are a failing company and get sucked up by Symantec, or some other gobbling, IP Grabbing Pirahna left from the Bubble Popping.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
I can't believe I got a "Troll" mod for pointing out that MBA's aren't the be-all and end-all of business acumen. There must be a few bored MBA students with mod points today. :)
You got your long list of MBA's a few posts down, I presume, from the 2003 CEO Magazine survey of CEOs - the same one that found that only 36% of Fortune 200/500/700 CEO's have MBA's. More pointedly, I will assert that non-MBA's are heavily enriched in "founding CEO's" - arguably the most valuable group, to their companies and to the economy. CEO is an incredibly difficult job, and having an MBA has little or nothing to do with success in it.
I certainly agree that MBA's are heavily represented in middle-management. And that quality middle-management is essential to any successful company. I'm unconvinced of the correlation between those two statements, however. GE, for example, has a long tradition of breeding managers of the highest-quality, and they don't turn to MBA schools to do it. I think it's also telling that the most common undergrad major among those Fortune X00 CEO's is engineering.
Actually, I haven't heard the crap that they are teaching these days. Would you care to enlighten us about all the "stupid ideas" they are now foisting upon "generations of leaders"?