The media platforms that just won't die
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Napster on Tuesday was acquired in a $207 million deal by Infinite Reality, a VC-backed metaverse unicorn.
Why it matters: Brand equity sometimes outlives the underlying business of internet platforms that were once popular with young users. That can prove irresistible to dealmakers.
Catch up quick: Napster didn't really disappear, although it's gone through a ton of ownership changes since pioneering what would evolve into music streaming.
- That included a 2022 purchase by Hivemind and Algorand, after which it raised funding from VC backers like Pegasus Tech Ventures, SkyBridge Capital, G20 Ventures, Outpost Ventures and F-Prime Capital.
- Now it will join Infinite Reality, which recently raised $3 billion at a $12.25 billion post-money valuation.
Zoom in: Infinite Reality's plan is to reimagine Napster as "a social music platform" that prioritizes active fan engagement over passive listening.
- Similar to companies like Spotify, it says the new platform will allow artists to "connect with, own, and monetize the relationship with their fans."
- The company will introduce features like 3D virtual concert spaces, merchandise and event commerce as well as AI-powered customer service and sales tools.
Zoom out: Infinite Reality is hardly the first platform to invest in a has-been tech platform years after its prime.
- Digg, an early news aggregator, was purchased by its founder Kevin Rose alongside Reddit co-founder and investor Alexis Ohanian earlier this month.
- Tumblr, which was sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013, was eventually sold to WordPress parent Automattic for roughly $3 million in 2019.
- Flickr was sold to photo-sharing service SmugMug by Verizon Media in 2018.
- SoundCloud was put on the block early last year by owners Raine Group and Temasek.
The bottom line: Old apps never die. They simply find a way.
