Beleaguered online-music pioneer Napster announced to shareholders in a letter Friday that it's still employing investment bank UBS and may be positioning itself for "strategic alternatives" to keeping the company public--i.e. a sale.
The letter was sent on behalf of Napster's board in order to urge shareholders to not vote for three activist candidates for the board. "The press release recently filed by the dissident group appears to imply that your board is not willing to consider a sale of the company," the letter read. "This is not true."
The board additionally recommended that in place of the dissident candidates, shareholders re-elect existing board members Richard Royko, Philip Holthouse, and Robert Rodin.
Napster was the original name in digital music, and a notorious one at that. The free peer-to-peer service was silenced after a high-profile court battle. Its attempts to resurface as a legitimate subscription-based music service just haven't gotten it back on top, and the addition of 6 million DRM-free MP3s would've been more impressive, if Amazon MP3 weren't doing the same.
Napster's letter to shareholders insisted that the proposed new board members would lead the company in a wrong direction. "The dissident group's nominees have no relevant experience in the digital-music industry, have no public-company board experience, and the dissident group has not put forth any substantive plan for how their nominees will enhance value for our stockholders, if elected to the board," the letter read.
Spore isn't the only thing on Electronic Arts' mind. The company still wants Take-Two Interactive.
On Monday, CEO John Riccitiello sent an open letter to Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick saying that EA's existing offer to acquire the smaller game manufacturer for $25.74 per share would officially expire just before midnight Eastern time on Monday. It sounds like EA is simply losing patience.
"Given the passage of time, we have to validate the assumptions used in the model to support our offer price of $25.74 per share in cash," Riccitiello's letter read. "In addition, we no longer believe we can integrate Take-Two ahead of the important holiday season."
Over the weekend, the two had discussed the prospect of Take-Two providing a non-public management presentation to EA concerning the company's internal perception of its own value. Zelnick agreed to that, under the condition that EA would enter a confidentiality agreement.
EA originally offered to buy Take-Two in February, almost certainly a response to Vivendi's acquisition of Activision late last year. With Take-Two absorbed, EA would retain its spot as the biggest video game manufacturer.
That original hostile $2 billion offer has already expired. And expired again.
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