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Napster To Be Acquired by Google?

Posted by Zonk on from the brave-new-world dept.

YesSir writes "The New York Post claims that Google is considering an alliance or possibly an acquisition of Napster. Rather then starting their own, Google could jump start their music service with the help of Napster. Napster's share price soared more than 30 percent as a result of the report that they are in discussions with Google." From the article: " The company in January told Reuters that it was not on the block. 'The company is not looking to be sold, the management is not looking to step out. It's simply not true,' a Napster spokesman said on Jan. 23. Last week, Napster, founded by college student Shawn Fanning and was once synonymous with the pirating of music, laid off 10 managers." More information available from C|Net. Update: 01/31 19:16 GMT by Z : A Reuters article has Google denying that it has plans to acquire Napster or start a music store anytime soon.

6 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Idiots by cdrguru · · Score: 5, Informative

    This "Napster" is not the company founded by Shawn Fanning. This is the company that was formerly known as Roxio that sold off all of their software assets to Sonic and then hired Shawn Fanning and bought the name Napster.

    This company has been mismanaged from the moment it was spun off from Adaptec. This would not surprise me in the least, but unfortunately it is probably a really good move for the current Napster folks. They will make out like bandits.

  2. Google already denied the rumor by satchmodian · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google already came out and denied any involvement with napster, according to this

  3. Yeah... er... no. by pperon · · Score: 2, Informative

    From Reuters: A spokesman at Google's Mountain View, California headquarters was not immediately available to comment. However, a spokeswoman in Google's U.K. office told Reuters, "I can completely deny the report." "No, we have no plans at this time to develop a music store, or to compete with existing online and offline music retailers," the spokeswoman said in a prepared statement."

    --
    This is not a sig.
  4. Denied! by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google said: "We have no plans to acquire Napster, nor do we have plans to develop a music store at this time." 13:01 EST

  5. Re:Isn't that really Roxio who bought the name? by Kittyflipping · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes. They bought the software 'Pressplay' and renamed it to 'Napster'.

  6. Re:The buffet is losing out to a la carte by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    When the iTunes store first opened, a lot of people at /. bitched and moaned about how terrible it was that you were forced to buy individual songs or albums.
    No. No, they didn't. The response was, in fact, quite enthusiastic.