<img style="float: right" src="http://www.iexbeta.com/images/news/logos/iexRoxio.gif">Roxio said Monday that it will sell its consumer software division for $80 million and focus wholly on its Napster digital music business in the future.
The company plans to officially change its name to Napster, taking the brand of the onetime file-swapping revolutionary that it purchased nearly two years ago. For the last nine months it has operated Napster as a paid digital music download and subscription service, competing in part with Apple Computer's iTunes.
The decision marks a dramatic and relatively rapid change in the company's identity and strategy. Once a leading company aimed at helping consumers burn CDs, it has seen that business slowly decline as other software programs such as iTunes have added their own automatic disc-burning capacity.
The digital music business is expected to grow substantially, however. Although far behind iTunes in terms of revenue, the Napster division is now making about $7.9 million a quarter, and is on track to reach $30 million to $40 million for its fiscal year.
"With the news today, we are on a path to become a very well-funded pure play in one of the hottest sectors in the consumer technology market," Napster CEO Chris Gorog said.
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News source: C|Net News