bloggingbuyouts

Beleaguered Napster (NYSE: NAPS) shareholders got a nice surprise today. That is, Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) agreed to buy the online-music operator for $2.65 per share. On the news, the stock price surged 86%. Although, it's still a relatively small deal – amounting to about $121 million.

Something else: Napster already has about $67 million in the bank.

All in all, it looks like a good move for Best Buy. After all, the music CD market is evaporating.

For the most part, Napster has about 700,000 subscribers (there is a monthly fee), which should get a nice boost from the huge distribution of Best Buy. In fact, the platform could eventually allow for other digital offerings, such as videos.

Of course, there is tremendous competition in the space, such as from Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). However, Best Buy can certainly find creative ways to bundle products and services -- making things compelling for its customers.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website

Maybe the U.S. is heading into a slowdown, and maybe private equity and traditional M&A has been slowing down in recent months. But there are many deals still pending, and regardless of the economy the temptation for consolidation and acquisitions is just going to be too great for nothing new to occur in this space. Below are some snippets from many deals going on in recent IPO's, M&A, private equity, and more.

• The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) has been under fire before, but this time might be the charm. See the story at TheDeal.com.
• While Biogen-Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) is under pressure to add three board appointees by Carl Icahn, he might not have such an easy time in driving a giant biotech's stock price.
• This infighting between Barry Diller of IAC/Interactive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) and John Malone's Liberty Media Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: LINTA) is getting stranger and stranger . . . even the reasoning or goals are not clear.
• Alliance Data Systems (NYSE: ADS) is an interesting situation, despite the private equity acquisition of it all but formally blowing up. I am not convinced this one is dead entirely because of lawsuits and break-up or termination fees likely, but it's hard to imagine the original terms being anything realistic now.
• The deal where Bank of America Corp. (NYS: BAC) is in the process of acquiring mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) is not changed by the recent earnings out of Countrywide. That's the stance of management anyway.

Web 2.0 is not just for consumer websites. In fact, corporate America is warming up to it.

One of the software players in the space is Jive Software, which recently snagged $15 million in its first round of venture capital. The investor is Sequoia Capital, which has backed biggies like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Basically, Jive develops web-based software that allows employees, partners, and suppliers to collaborate. There should be lots of growth -- although, the competition is tough. For example, one of the biggest players is Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Over the years, Jive has had a stunning record of success. Apparently, there are more than 2,000 customers and revenues are over $15 million (and growing nicely). But, with backing of Sequoia, it's a good bet we'll be hearing more about Jive and its competitors.

To see more venture capital fundings, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Less than 45 minutes before the end of private equity firm Terra Firma's deadline today, the company announced that it had acquired the required number of shares to buy London-based music giant EMI Group PLC (LSE: EMI). Meanwhile, EMI stock soared in trading this morning to over 263 pence per share after closing at 254 pence yesterday afternoon. Terra Firma offered 265 pence per share to shareholders in a deal backed by Citigroup Inc.'s (NYSE: C) Citibank division.

The offer by Terra Firma was first announced on May 21 and required 90% approval from shareholders before the deal would succeed. The first deadline was in late June and after three extensions the firm reported to the London Stock Exchange that it had acquired 90.27%, according to Billboard.biz. Reported numerous times, shareholders were allegedly waiting for an offer by rival music giant Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), but after an announcement two weeks ago, that was no longer an option.

The deal was lucky to receive approval from the European Commission, something a previous offer from WMG was not afforded in 2006 (it sat at 315 pence per share, fueling shareholder hopes). In the last four months, EMI has been at the forefront of music sales with the announcement of Digital Rights Management technology-free files for sale on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store and a future Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) store. The deal with Terra Firma is not expected to alter these developments.

This post was originally written by Richard Driver for BloggingStocks.com.

Terra Firma, a European private equity firm, has again extended a deadline for EMI Group PLC (LSE: EMI) shareholders to accept the nearly two-month-old offer for the company. The firm is willing to pay 265 pence a share, roughly $5.34, but EMI's shares are currently at 268.5 pence, or $5.42, after the LSE opened this morning, according to a Billboard report from London. The new deadline is set for July 12 after the previous deadline passed yesterday.

The Billboard report indicated that Terra Firma had already received 3.53% of issued shares by the time the offer's deadline on June 28 passed. After two extensions, that amount has increased only 0.03%. The report also maintains that a spokesman indicated the firm would be willing to continue extensions until July 26 and that it is possible many shareholders are waiting for a higher counter-bid from Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG). WMG has been rumored to be preparing for an offer since the Terra Firma buyout announcement was made, although EMI and WMG have flirted with joining for over seven years.

Stockholders may be hopeful for a bid from WMG, but the combination of these two music labels could be an unwanted and unfortunate move for the record industry. Both labels are committed to different and opposing growth models for the industry -- the most important and largest being the place of Digital Rights Management technology, something WMG is devoted to using. EMI dropped DRM use from its tracks in April and launched Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s new iTunes Plus in May, the first of numerous DRM-free services.