Jari Ketola
10 Aug 2004 7:29
Software company turned music business Roxio on Monday announced that it would sell its consumer software division for $80 million and put all focus on the Napster online digital music store.
Roxio, known for software titles such as Easy Media Creator and Toast, plans to change its name to Napster. Less than a year ago Roxio was still best known for its recording solutions. Now it seems they want to dissociate themselves from the image and avoid confusion by changing the name altogether.
"With the successful completion of the transaction, Napster will emerge as a well-positioned pure-play in the fast-growing digital music sector with a substantially enhanced balance sheet that will support our growth plans," said Chris Gorog, Roxio's chairman and chief executive officer.
The software division will be sold to Sonic Solutions. Under the terms of the deal, Sonic will purchase essentially the entire Roxio software operation including Roxio's CD and DVD recording, authoring, photo and video editing application products including Easy Media Creator, PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD Copy and Toast. Sonic expects to retain most of the current employees of the Roxio organization. Sonic intends to continue the Roxio brands, and current distribution and OEM relationships.
Source: Sonic press release