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Google to Buy Napster?

miloblithe said:
Why would Google buy Napster for the brand? Google is a top-notch brand already.
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I agree. I think buying Napster is a waste of time and money. They should just start their own music downloading service from their existing Google site since EVERYBODY and their dog "googles" anyways. A Napster purchase would have made more sense when Napster was in their prime, but now with more and more various music downloading sites (like itunes) and with more and more ipods and MP3 players out there, Napster is going to just keep becoming a smaller and smaller fish in an ever expanding pond. So that's why I think it would be better to start from scratch and invest that money into advertising for a new Google music service instead. But if they can get a good price for Napster, maybe google can turn it around. "What a coincidence Mr.Burns...you are desperate to buy, and we are desperate to sell!" "Advantage, BURNS!" :D
 
I'd rather see more than one really big (and Mac-compatible) music store than see ONLY Apple. Competition won't kill Apple, and could push them to do more.

And my choices of competitor (assuming any of them can ever manage a great offering like iTunes) would be:

1. Anybody but Microsoft or Real
2. Google
3. Sony or Napster
4. The prince of darkness
5. Attilla the Hun
6. Yahoo
7. Halliburton
8. Real
9. Wal-Mart
10. Microsoft
 
stoid said:
Good idea, Napster has a strong brand name, and is poised for success. Seriously. Any. Minute. Now. :rolleyes:
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Hey, now come on. It could happen. IT COULD!

Hehehehehe they're so funny at googley-woogley.com
 
would it be wrong...

would it be wrong if apple (or google) just bought napster and just dismantled it? i mean, it's been dying a slow and painful death, someone should just put it out of its misery... besides, we wouldn't have to worry about napster randomly and luckily striking gold in the online music industry to challenge apple. think forcing people to fold before the flop in poker...
 
iMeowbot said:
You know that was the story linked in the first post, right? :)
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Time to re-visit it again then, because now the link has Google's denial :)
 
nxent said:
would it be wrong if apple (or google) just bought napster and just dismantled it? i mean, it's been dying a slow and painful death, someone should just put it out of its misery... besides, we wouldn't have to worry about napster randomly and luckily striking gold in the online music industry to challenge apple. think forcing people to fold before the flop in poker...
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Why waste money on that though?

In other news, I'm thinking of offering Napster my half-eaten sandwich..
 
nagromme said:
Time to re-visit it again then, because now the link has Google's denial :)
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Oh, I figured it was there this morning. The Times story had the Google response right after the Post started the whole thing.
 
nagromme said:
Time to re-visit it again then, because now the link has Google's denial :)
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Oooooo a denial!!! It must be true, or why would they deny it?

LOL... this is fun!
 
yellow said:
Why waste money on that though?

In other news, I'm thinking of offering Napster my half-eaten sandwich..
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lol, but it can't be worth all that much, can it? besides, isn't it bad to try to revamp a failed business while keeping the name? (not sure if this is what google has in mind). it's like building a new cruise ship and calling it the 'titanic'...
 
well revamping and keeping the name is one thing.. just buying and dismantling to keep it from cutting into your business later is another. As for the sandwich.. well the Napster employees have to ffed their families and I'm a generous man.

Oh, I plan on changing the name from Napster to ThisIsDefinitelyTheiTunesMusicStoreKillerNoSeriouslySeriouslyStopLaughing.com
 
iMeowbot said:
Oh, I figured it was there this morning. The Times story had the Google response right after the Post started the whole thing.
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Could have been there all along. I got the "news" elsewhere first too.

But that would make the whole thread of discussion all the sillier :p
 
stoid said:
Good idea, Napster has a strong brand name, and is poised for success. Seriously. Any. Minute. Now. :rolleyes:
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Naa. Google would rename it into G-Sound and will create a single service that gives you all of its premium services. This service will be know as G-Spot. :D
 
This is most fantastic news

What this means, is that google has no Idea how to begin building a music service. Therefore, they purchase a mediocre one, and hope, I imagine, to ladle som sauce on it to make it worthwhile. The bottom line is, no matter how much sauce you ladle on a turd, it's still a turd, and has no chance at all of competing with the reigning heavyweight champ. BTW, this also means that Google isn't seriously considering competing with Apple at the moment. I would imagine that they're just picking up napster while the picking is cheap, and hoping that Appl will make a gross misstep and then they will be able to slip a foot in the door. Anyway, my rambling is finished.
 
eeeeecellent(burns style)

this is good, one way or another napster is gonna be off the market. whether google buys it out or it goes under financially. muahahahahahahahaha
 
Since Napster distributes DRM'd WMA files, how is this Mac news in any way?

Napster stinks. The interface is slow, hard to search - unless you know what you are looking for - and the songs sound horrible at 128 kbps. In the subscription model, almost every album that I looked at had at least one song that could not be subscribed to, only bought and they were almost always the best songs on the album of course.

If Google wants to get into a music store and can't swing an ITMS type deal, then Yahoo is a much better model. They are still DRM'd WMAs, but at least they are at 192 kbps. Better selection and better interface as well.

Of course, they best model is still something like eMusic where they are mostly 192 kbps VBR songs with absolutely no DRM, plus you can re-download songs if you lose them as long as you maintain your subscription.
 
Forgot to add that if this is true, then Google is sinking to Microsoft-like tactics of buying an existing product instead of dveloping their own and beating them by making a better product.
 
stoid said:
Napster's market cap is at about $175 million, and it jumped, starting the day at about $136 million. This is pocket change for some individuals much less for a corporation like Google that has a market cap almost a thousand times larger than Napster's.
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you're saying google's worth more than $175 billion?
 
gnasher729 said:
A spokeswoman for Google UK has already issued a strong denial of these rumours. According to her, Google has at this time no intention to enter this market or aquire any companies.

To those who like conspiracies: "At this time" means you can't sue Google if they ever change their mind.
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I believe there is a law that would open them up for market manipulation charges if they change their mind in the next six months after issuing a strong denial. Thus, most companies would just state that "They do not comment on rumors" just to be on the safe side.
 
Google is in trouble. Wall Street did not like the way they managed their books this last quarter. This Napster rumor only made their stock tank even more. I don't see anything Napster can offer that Google can not accomplish on their own.
 
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