Investment banking firm Trenwith Securities LLC, said Tuesday it was retained to auction the assets of the once wildly-popular Napster song-swap service.
Trenwith, a unit of BDO Seidman LLP, said it was hired by the committee of unsecured creditors of Napster to market the assets free of all liabilities and pending litigation claims.
Proposals from qualified bidders must be submitted by Aug. 21, 2002 for the auction commencing on Aug. 27, 2002.
The service has been idle since last summer due to a copyright infringement suit filed by the recording industry.
“Despite being shut down in July 2001, the company still commands brand name recognition on par with eBay, AOL and Amazon among consumers,” said Rick Chance, managing director for Investment Banking at Trenwith Securities.
“These assets should be particularly attractive to entertainment companies, media content and broadband providers, music and online retailers, online portals and any other entity that can benefit from gaining direct access to potentially millions of consumers,” he said.
Prior to this auction, German media giant Bertelsmann AG had promised to bid $9 million at the auction to be held Aug. 27. Bertelsmann had already advanced Napster an estimated $85 million to fund the Redwood City, Calif.-based firm’s operations during its bankruptcy reorganization.
