Napster bullish on user engagement

Investors bearish on Napster sales

By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 11th August 2008 22:44 GMT

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Napster continues to bumble along as one of those curious technology oddities haunting the NASDAQ exchange.

The tethered download king posted revenue of $30.3m during its first quarter - an unhealthy drop from the $32.3m posted in the same period last year. Thanks to higher expenses, Napster also posted a wider net loss, hitting $4.38m in this year's Q1 versus $4.24m in last year's.

As always, the company was impressed with its ineptitude.

"We are pleased to begin to see the positive impacts from both the launch of our new MP3 store and the expansion of Napster Mobile," said Napster CEO Chris Gorog. "The introduction of MP3’s into our line-up has created positive trends for Napster with increases to visitation and user engagement."

That MP3 bit refers to Napster's decision in May to begin selling DRM-free tunes alongside its tethered music subscription service.

A novel idea, we know.

Despite Gorog's good cheer, investors continue to maintain a "Is this company still flopping around?" rating on Napster. Shares in NAPS tumbled 10 per cent, at the time of this report, to $1.35. ®

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