Macworld: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition ...

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11 Replies Last post: Dec 22, 2004 12:44 PM by MacPCJustCreate

MW Forums

12,220 posts since
Aug 2, 2004

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Dec 20, 2004 9:00 AM

Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

Sonic Solutions on Monday announced it has completed its previously announced acquisition of the consumer software division of Roxio Inc., as well as the name itself. Among the Mac products acquired by Sonic are Toast, the Toast add-on Jam and Popcorn. Roxio Inc. has officially changed its name to Napster Inc. and will focus its efforts on the development of that Windows-only online music download service. As part of the acquisition, more than 200 Roxio employees located in the United States and abroad have become Sonic employees. more

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leicaman

1,204 posts since
Dec 4, 2003

1. Dec 20, 2004 9:44 AM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition - GOOD!!!!!

We don't need Napster's CEO making decisons about Mac OS X software. I love Toast and would hate to see it cancelled for spite.

Eric

There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence. - Will Rogers

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KingKerry

14 posts since
Dec 8, 2004

2. Dec 20, 2004 10:00 AM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

Who cares about "Top of Mind Awareness".
All anyone should be looking at is who has sold more legitimate music.

No matter how much I look at this deal, I can see nothing that makes any sense from the Roxio end. Sonic has picked up a long standing well regarded Mac application. Roxio has committed to a "well known" brand with a dubbious past.

I just don;t get it.

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Schneb

1,398 posts since
Dec 10, 2002

3. Dec 20, 2004 10:10 AM

in response to: leicaman

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition - GOOD!!!!!

If Sonic stupidly drops Toast, Apple will take up the slack by next upgrade--integrated into the OS.

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JackMac

1,068 posts since
Mar 7, 2002

4. Dec 20, 2004 10:12 AM

in response to: leicaman

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

I think good businessmen look at the money and don't make decisions out of spite. Consider the Microsoft Mac unit for example.

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heisetax

522 posts since
Oct 2, 2003

5. Dec 20, 2004 11:15 AM

in response to: JackMac

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

Since this is Sonic & Napster That may be true. Those with the facts will have to agree that Steve JObs does things for spite, or what appears to be spite. Remember a few years ago when ATI mentioned that they would have a new video card in a new yet to be named Mac just hours before Steve got to give his MacWorld keynote address. He cut ATI out of the keynote address & cut their products from the MAc platform for sometime. Was this "{spite" or was this "a good business decision." Most would agree that it was more out of spite than a good business decision. But we must remember that was done by Steve Jobs, & Jobs is a salesman & not a technician.

Bill the Taxman,
I purchase Macs inspite of Steve JObs & not because of Steve Jobs.

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Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

6. Dec 20, 2004 1:01 PM

in response to: Schneb

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition - GOOD!!!!!

And like most updates in recent memory (years now), it should be riddled with bugs and the endless spinning beachball. You give credit far too much to Apple's "accident prone" software engineering dept., who only seems to do well with apps they buy (and those coders continue to engineer) from another company, like FCP.

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Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

7. Dec 20, 2004 1:22 PM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

I have friends at Roxio's Toast Group that lost jobs over this sell off to Sonic. This was a stupid move.

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d00d

12,136 posts since
Apr 24, 2001

8. Dec 20, 2004 1:25 PM

in response to: Nobody

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

In reply to:<hr />
This was a stupid move.

<hr />

I'm going to need more explanation of this. I'm just not following.

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MacZilla

62 posts since
Oct 19, 2003

9. Dec 20, 2004 6:30 PM

in response to: d00d

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

It was a great buy for Sonic, which is why they did the deal.

As for Roxio (Now Napster,) they're betting their entire existence on an online music store. That's a risky strategy because selling music online alone has yet to be a proven, long-term money-maker, since the labels get most of the money.

Apple would have never gotten into it unless they were using it is a loss leader to sell iPods. According to their recent quarterly filings, they're actually breaking even with it.

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bigpoppa

95 posts since
Sep 2, 2004

10. Dec 21, 2004 2:16 AM

in response to: MacZilla

Re: Sonic completes Roxio acquisition

Not to mention that Napster supports a subscription based model which REALLY lowers the profit margin to the artists...they won't support this for long when the numbers are crunched. Looks like Napster is making another stupid move.

If Shawn Fanning had worked with the music industry before he unleashed the first Napster, he would have been the savior and and an icon. Now he's just another kid who reverse-engineered an IRC client and stole some code.

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MacPCJustCreate

675 posts since
Sep 1, 2004

11. Dec 22, 2004 12:44 PM

in response to: JackMac

For the Love of Money and Strategy!

They look at the money and also how the acquisition fits into their overall coporate strategy. Sometimes the pieces that are not a good fit are either sold-off or are just cancelled.

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