Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Best Buy is trying to keep up with Apple

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy said Monday it will acquire online music-sharing site Napster for around $126.8 million in cash. This move will to boost its digital media capabilities. Best Buy will begin a tender offer for all outstanding Napster shares for $2.65 per share, representing a 95 percent premium to the stock's closing price Friday of $1.36 per share. Napster had about 47.9 million shares outstanding as of June 30, implying a price of $126.8 million. In a statement, Best Buy valued the deal at $121 million — or $54 million after netting about $67 million in Napster's cash and short-term investments. The takeover is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The deal includes Napster's 700,000 subscribers, its Web-based customer-service platform and mobile capabilities. 

I have always used ITunes it will be interesting to see if Best Buy purchasing Napster will take away business from ITunes. 

- Carly Youngren

1 comment:

Brazilian in LA (Raul Reis) said...

I read that in the paper and was pretty amazed. I didn't expect a retailer such as Best Buy trying to get into the digital music market, but it just goes to show how convergence has changed everything we know about the economy...
-Raul.