Once Mighty Napster Facing Takeover by Ice Cream Store Owner
Posted 08/02/08 at 01:15:39 PM by Paul Lilly
Yahoo isn't the only one facing the threat of a proxy battle. Kavan Singh, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who owns a chain of Cold Stone Creamery ice cream stores, wants to freeze Chris Gorog out of his position as Napster 2.0's CEO, which would end his uninspired reign.
Gorog, the former CEO of Roxio, struck a deal to scoop up the once renowned P2P service for just $5 million in 2002, turned it into a legit paid music subscription service, and promised investors an influx of millions of customers. But instead of music listeners turning out in droves, today only about 760,000 subscribers pay a monthly fee to listen to its library of 6 million songs. Since the relaunch 3.5 years ago, stock has plummeted 69 percent, and the company noted a $16 million loss for this fiscal year. Now Singh wants Gorog to step aside.
Along with two other investors, Singh will fight for a board seat at the company's September 18 annual meeting. All three of them blame Gorog and mismanaged marketing for the company's failure to compete, noting that people still associate Napster with illegal activities. "When you tell people they should get Napster, they say, 'What are you trying to do? Get me arrested?'", complains Thomas Sailors, one of the investors running for a board seat.
Whether the ice cream man and his entourage prove successful remains to be seen, but will it even matter, or does Napster have a shot at turning its fortunes around?

Image Credit: Napster
It is amazing how people
Submitted by sanravel on Sun, 08/03/2008 - 7:02am
It is amazing how people that can be smart enough to build a business and make themselves rich will do stupid stuff like sink money into a dying brand or company.
Napster...
Submitted by dwr50 on Sun, 08/03/2008 - 5:28am
They should start by changing the name.People associate the name Napster with piracy.Change it to something like " Pay me forever.com"
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Ice Cream star?
Submitted by mdleslie on Sat, 08/02/2008 - 7:52pm
Some one needs to double check the spell checker.
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