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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The assets of file-sharing service Napster Inc. went up for auction Friday with an asking price of $25 million and a deadline only eight business days away.

Trenwith Securities, a Costa Mesa-based securities firm, was hired by Napster's creditors to help generate interest between now and the Aug. 21 bid deadline. Trenwith has been pitching to everyone from venture capitalists, music retailers and media firms to major record labels that drove Napster into bankruptcy this year.

But those interested will have to outbid German publishing giant Bertelsmann, which has promised to bid an additional $9 million at the auction to be held Aug. 27, bringing the total value of its bid to more than $100 million. Bertelsmann advanced Napster, which boasted some 60 million users at its zenith, more than $85 million in loans and is funding the Redwood City, Calif.-based firm's operations during its bankruptcy reorganization.

The creditors committee named by the bankruptcy judge, however, is hoping it can do better with Trenwith's help.


The committee, which includes the law firm of former Napster lawyer David Boies and some music and software companies, thinks the judge might not count most of Bertelsmann's initial $85 million, in which case the winning bidder could put up as few as $25 million.



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Later,

Pat

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Bankrupt Napster Inc. on Thursday plans to seek a Delaware court's approval of its proposed sale to Bertelsmann AG, which hopes to revive the silenced Internet music-sharing service.

No other bidders emerged for Redwood City-based Napster after German-based Bertelsmann forced the company into bankruptcy in June. Bertelsmann values its bid for Napster at about $100 million, including debts that will be waived as part of the deal.

Bertelsmann's bid still faces a potential obstacle. The Music Publishers Association and the Recording Industry Association of America - two powerful trade groups that have fought Napster for years - have objected to the sale.

Before federal courts ruled Napster's online file-swapping service violated copyright laws, the service had attracted 60 million users and revolutionized the way people obtained music.


Although Napster's service has been idle since July 2001, millions of Web surfers still exchange music files on the Internet, much to the frustration of recording studios and artists who say they are being cheated out of sales and royalties.

If its takeover bid wins court approval, Bertelsmann hopes to resurrect Napster as an industry-approved subscription service.



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Later,

Pat

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Solemn, freshly fired workers enjoyed one last pizza party at Napster Inc. after they were all laid off and the enterprise shut down following a judge's decision to block the sale of the song-swapping network to its chief investor, Bertelsmann AG.

The bad news came Tuesday from Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court Judge Peter J. Walsh who found Napster's CEO Konrad Hilbers had conflicting loyalties with his former employer Bertelsmann.

Follow this link for the whole story:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20020904/D7LQP3AO0.html


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Pat

Porn company offers to buy Napster
09:06 Friday 13th September 2002
Reuters


Private Media, based in Spain, offers £1.5m for the defunct file-trading service. Copyright protection is an issue in adult entertainment just as much as in Hollywood, it says
Private Media Group, a publicly traded adult entertainment site based in Spain, on Thursday said it had made an offer to acquire the assets of defunct song-swapping site Napster.

In a statement issued from Barcelona, Private Media said that it had offered to acquire the Napster trademark and Napster.com Internet address for 1 million shares of Private Media common stock, valued at about $2.4m (£1.5m).

Private Media shares closed down 11 cents at $2.41 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

A representative for Napster, which recently closed its doors and terminated all but a few of its remaining 42 staffers as it prepared to go into Chapter 7 liquidation, was not available for comment.

The revolutionary Internet song-swap service hailed by millions of music fans but damned by the powerful recording industry officially shut down earlier this month after a US bankruptcy court blocked its final sale to German media giant Bertelsmann.

Private Media chief executive Charles Prast said in the statement that copyright infringement is a major issue in the online adult entertainment industry as well as for the music and movie industry.

"Acquiring Napster is our way of entering the peer-to-peer marketplace for adult content in a closed environment," Prast said.

Private Media said it plans to use the Napster trademark to offer millions of adults worldwide the ability to swap adult-oriented content for free and to also gain access to "top quality" content at a reasonable price. Private Media claims to own the largest library of adult-oriented content in the world, with global copyrights to the content.

"Along with Hollywood and the recording industry, we have become increasingly concerned about the level of copyright infringement inherent in the free peer-to-peer file swapping services," Prast said.



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Later,

Pat

Pat,

From the strange to the bizarre.. thanks for keeping us up to date!

Brian

LONDON (Reuters) - CD-recording software maker Roxio Inc emerged as the potential new owner of Napster on Friday, bidding to buy the revolutionary song-swapping site for $5.3 million in cash and stock.
The Nasdaq-listed firm filed an offer to a Wilmington, Delaware bankruptcy court on Thursday to purchase Napster's assets for $5 million in cash and 100,000 warrants for Roxio stock. Roxio's shares ended Thursday's session at $3.38.
The deal hinges upon approval by the bankruptcy court, which has been overseeing the sale of Napster's assets since the track-trading service filed for Chapter 11 protection in September.
A spokesman for Roxio in London said the company came to an agreement with creditors and a court-appointed trustee overseeing Napster's reorganization following a series of negotiations.
More than a dozen bidders, including Barcelona-based adult entertainment company Private Media Group, have emerged as possible buyers of Napster's assets.
Rival bidders have until November 27, the date the court is expected to rule on the offer, to top the Roxio bid, the spokesman said.

NOT FREE, BUT CHEAP

The Roxio offer price is considered relatively cheap for a song-swapping service that in its heyday attracted tens of millions of young music fans, a group highly desirable to record labels looking to cultivate a loyal following.
Trenwith Securities, the U.S. investment firm handling the Napster asset sale, originally asked that offers for Napster's revolutionary technology begin at $6 million.
With the exception of Private's $2.4 million all-stock bid, none of the offers, nor the identities of the bidders, have been made public.
If its offer is approved, Roxio would receive all of Napster's intellectual property including its technology patent portfolio and world-renowned brand name, but Roxio is not assuming any of Napster's liabilities, including pending litigation, it said in a statement.
Roxio's bid could put an end to the lengthy saga of the music industry's biggest nemesis in recent years.
At its height two years ago, Internet users traded tens of millions of music files across Napster's network, ushering in an era of rampant online song piracy in which high-quality recordings could be downloaded onto a computer hard drive for free.
The major music labels, which blame online piracy for a dramatic drop in CD sales, took Napster to court for infringing copyright laws, essentially shutting it down in July 2001.
The Napster phenomenon triggered an explosion in Internet file-swapping. Newer, more advanced services such as Kazaa and Morpheus MusicCity enable Internet users to trade all manner of copyrighted materials, from songs to video games and movies.
Napster's popularity attracted the strongest interest from Germany's Bertelsmann, which invested tens of millions of dollars in the service, hoping to cash in on the outfit's global audience of avid music fans.
But Napster ran out of money before it could figure out a way to legitimize the technology and charge consumers for downloads.
In September, the bankruptcy court blocked Bertelsmann's bid to buy the Napster assets. A group of unsecured creditors and music publishers also filed a proceeding that month to keep the German media giant from being first in line to claim any sales proceeds.
Roxio, the maker of a range of software products that allow computer users to copy and edit music, photos and video onto CDs and DVDs, has expanded its product range over the past year to allow consumers to record and share digital media.
The firm said it would not discuss the implementation of the Napster technologies, brand name and Web site until the deal is finalized.



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Later,

Pat