Best Buy rescues Napster to enhance online sales
American electronics specialist Best Buy has come to the rescue of digital music service Napster, offering to buy the subscription service in a $121m (£68m) deal. The surprise move by one of the US's largest music retailers came as it said it planned to expand online sales. Brian Dunn, Best Buy president and chief operating officer, said buying Napster would give his company a "recognised platform" for moving into digital media distribution. Napster has 700,000 subscribers , paying about £10 a month to download songs in the company's extensive catalogue.
Bobbie Johnson in San Francisco
Trinity Mirror MD quits amid management rejig
Richard Webb, managing director of Trinity Mirror's UK nationals division, has left the company with immediate effect, the most high-profile casualty of Trinity's cost-cutting. He has been replaced by Mark Hollingshed, who will combine the role with his duties as managing director of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail. Trinity Mirror said it would be making further announcements on its management in the next few days. The move comes amid £20m cost-cutting plans which last week saw Trinity close seven local papers and nine offices in north Wales and the north-west.
Ben Dowell
EA abandons pursuit of Grand Theft Auto maker
Electronic Arts has abandoned its pursuit of rival Take-Two Interactive, ending a seven-month attempt to buy the publisher of Grand Theft Auto. California-based EA, the world's biggest games publisher, made an initial $26 (£15) a share offer in February, valuing its rival at more than $2bn. After being spurned by the Take-Two board on several occasions, EA concluded that a deal is no longer a possibility. Grand Theft Auto, created in Scotland, is one of the industry's biggest titles. The latest instalment, released in April, sold nearly 6m copies in its first week, grossing more than $500m.
Bobbie Johnson
Private firms to road test pay-as-you-drive scheme
The government pushed ahead with its road pricing policy yesterday by awarding trial contracts to private companies. The Department for Transport said three businesses including Serco, the services company, will test pay-as-you-drive systems while a further four companies will examine the fairness of payment systems. "We believe that this project will help local authorities in their longer-term development plans for combining a local congestion charging scheme with major investment in public transport," the DfT said. The trials are expected to get under way in the new year.
Dan Milmo
Ford risks union conflict over Southampton plant
The Ford motor company was on collision course with union leaders last night after failing to convince them that new plans for Southampton would safeguard jobs at the site. The Unite union said that the carmaker's chances of reaching a wider pay deal this year would be hit unless the future of the group's UK factories was secured. Ford, which produces Transit vans in Southampton, is talking about making only chassis cabs for a new generation of Transits after 2011. Unite fears that Ford is scaling back Southampton, giving more work to lower-cost facilities in eastern Europe.
Terry Macalister