Best Buy to acquire Napster

Napster, the online music community that rose from a dorm room project to became the scourge of the global recording industry, is being purchased by Best Buy for nearly $127 million, as the electronics retailer tries to boost its digital music business, reports AP.

The $2.65 per share all-cash deal announced Monday is nearly double the music network's Friday closing price. However, it is a small sum to pay for Best Buy, which gets access to Napster's 700 000 subscribers who pay a monthly fee to access digital music catalogues.

"It's not a huge investment, but it definitely has brand recognition," noted Morningstar analyst Brady Lemos, adding that Best Buy also benefits from the acquisition of technical expertise about the digital music industry.

Eric Schmidt repeated yesterday that he plans to proceed with an advertising partnership with Yahoo early next month, whether or not regulators have finished reviewing the controversial pact, reports The New York Times.

"My understanding of the way this works, because it is a commercial deal, we have a choice of when we implement it," the Google CEO said during a conversation with reporters.

He noted that Google and Yahoo voluntarily delayed the implementation of the deal for about 120 days to give regulators time to review it. But he indicated that further delays could be costly to Google and Yahoo. "Time is money in our business," he said.

YouTube is to ban footage, on its Web site in the UK, that shows weapons being used to intimidate people, says The BBC.

The new policy was introduced because of "particular concern" in Britain over the subject, the site's owners, Google, said.

MPs criticised video-sharing Web sites, including YouTube, in July, saying they should be doing more to vet content.

General Electric (GE) and Google are collaborating to lobby for renewable energy policies and to jointly develop clean technologies, reports CNet.

During the Google Zeitgeist conference, Google CEO Eric Schmidt interviewed GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt on stage about the maturity of renewable energy technologies and current policies.

Schmidt said the companies will push for government programmes to modernise the electrical grid, which would enable broader use of renewable energy.