Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
An anonymous reader shared this report from Forbes:
On November 20, at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern time, Napster held an online meeting for its shareholders; an estimated 700 of roughly 1,500 including employees, former employees and individual investors tuned in. That's when its CEO John Acunto told everyone he believed that the never-identified big investor — who the company had insisted put in $3.36 billion at a $12 billion valuation in January, which would have made it one of the year's biggest fundraises — was not going to come through.
In an email sent out shortly after, it told existing investors that some would get a bigger percentage of the company, due to the canceled shares, and went on to describe itself as a "victim of misconduct," adding that it was "assisting law enforcement with their ongoing investigations." As for the promised tender offer, which would have allowed shareholders to cash out, that too was called off. "Since that investor was also behind the potential tender, we also no longer believe that will occur," the company wrote in the email.
At this point it seems unlikely that getting bigger stakes in the business will make any of the investors too happy. The company had been stringing its employees and investors along for nearly a year with ever-changing promises of an impending cash infusion and chances to sell their shares in a tender offer that would change everything. In fact, it was the fourth time since 2022 they've been told they could soon cash out via a tender offer, and the fourth time the potential deal fell through. Napster spokesperson Gillian Sheldon said certain statements about the fundraise "were made in good faith based on what we understood at the time. We have since uncovered indications of misconduct that suggest the information provided to us then was not accurate."
The article notes America's Department of Justice has launched an investigation (in which Napster is not a target), while the Securities and Exchange Commission has a separate ongoing investigation from 2022 into Napster's scrapped reverse merger.
While Napster announced they'd been acquired for $207 million by a tech company named Infinite Reality, Forbes says that company faced "a string of lawsuits from creditors alleging unpaid bills, a federal lawsuit to enforce compliance with an SEC subpoena (now dismissed) and exaggerated claims about the extent of their partnerships with Manchester City Football Club and Google. The company also touted 'top-tier' investors who never directly invested in the firm, and its anonymous $3 billion investment that its spokesperson told Forbes in March was in "an Infinite Reality account and is available to us" and that they were 'actively leveraging' it..."
And by the end, "Napster appears to have been scrambling to raise cash to keep the lights on, working with brokers and investment advisors including a few who had previously gotten into trouble with regulators.... If it turns out that Napster knew the fundraise wasn't happening and it benefited from misrepresenting itself to investors or acquirees, it could face much bigger problems. That's because doing so could be considered securities fraud."
On November 20, at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern time, Napster held an online meeting for its shareholders; an estimated 700 of roughly 1,500 including employees, former employees and individual investors tuned in. That's when its CEO John Acunto told everyone he believed that the never-identified big investor — who the company had insisted put in $3.36 billion at a $12 billion valuation in January, which would have made it one of the year's biggest fundraises — was not going to come through.
In an email sent out shortly after, it told existing investors that some would get a bigger percentage of the company, due to the canceled shares, and went on to describe itself as a "victim of misconduct," adding that it was "assisting law enforcement with their ongoing investigations." As for the promised tender offer, which would have allowed shareholders to cash out, that too was called off. "Since that investor was also behind the potential tender, we also no longer believe that will occur," the company wrote in the email.
At this point it seems unlikely that getting bigger stakes in the business will make any of the investors too happy. The company had been stringing its employees and investors along for nearly a year with ever-changing promises of an impending cash infusion and chances to sell their shares in a tender offer that would change everything. In fact, it was the fourth time since 2022 they've been told they could soon cash out via a tender offer, and the fourth time the potential deal fell through. Napster spokesperson Gillian Sheldon said certain statements about the fundraise "were made in good faith based on what we understood at the time. We have since uncovered indications of misconduct that suggest the information provided to us then was not accurate."
The article notes America's Department of Justice has launched an investigation (in which Napster is not a target), while the Securities and Exchange Commission has a separate ongoing investigation from 2022 into Napster's scrapped reverse merger.
While Napster announced they'd been acquired for $207 million by a tech company named Infinite Reality, Forbes says that company faced "a string of lawsuits from creditors alleging unpaid bills, a federal lawsuit to enforce compliance with an SEC subpoena (now dismissed) and exaggerated claims about the extent of their partnerships with Manchester City Football Club and Google. The company also touted 'top-tier' investors who never directly invested in the firm, and its anonymous $3 billion investment that its spokesperson told Forbes in March was in "an Infinite Reality account and is available to us" and that they were 'actively leveraging' it..."
And by the end, "Napster appears to have been scrambling to raise cash to keep the lights on, working with brokers and investment advisors including a few who had previously gotten into trouble with regulators.... If it turns out that Napster knew the fundraise wasn't happening and it benefited from misrepresenting itself to investors or acquirees, it could face much bigger problems. That's because doing so could be considered securities fraud."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Afgelopen week was daar ineens een Amerikaans-Russisch ‘vredesplan’ om de oorlog in Oekraïne te beëindigen. 28 punten, maar een groot deel daarvan is voor Oekraïne onaanvaardbaar.
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BRASÍLIA (ANP) - De Braziliaanse oud-president Jair Bolsonaro zegt dat hij medicijnen slikte die hem "paranoïde" maakten en ervoor zorgden dat hij last had van hallucinaties. Dat zou ervoor hebben gezorgd dat hij probeerde zijn enkelband te breken, liet Bolsonaro zondag aan een rechter weten. Hij ontkent dat er sprake was van een ontsnappingspoging.
Bolsonaro zei dat hij van verschillende artsen anti-epileptica voorgeschreven had gekregen om de chronische hik waar hij jaren geleden al eens voor werd behandeld. Die medicatie zou hem hebben doen geloven dat er in zijn enkelband afluisterapparatuur zat, zei hij tegen de rechter.
De 70-jarige Bolsonaro was alleen op het moment dat hij met een soldeerbout probeerde de enkelband af te krijgen. Toen hij weer "bij zinnen kwam", liet hij zijn beveiliging weten wat hij had geprobeerd. Hij werd gearresteerd wegens een "hoog vluchtrisico".
Bolsonaro werd eerder veroordeeld tot 27 jaar celstraf, maar zijn advocaten zeggen dat hij wegens zijn gezondheid niet naar de gevangenis kan.
De Braziliaanse oud-president Jair Bolsonaro zegt dat hij medicijnen slikte die hem "paranoïde" maakten en ervoor zorgden dat hij last had van hallucinaties. Dat zou ervoor hebben gezorgd dat hij probeerde zijn enkelband te breken, liet Bolsonaro zondag aan een rechter weten. Hij ontkent dat er sprake was van een ontsnappingspoging.
Bolsonaro zei dat hij van verschillende artsen anti-epileptica voorgeschreven had gekregen om de chronische hik waar hij jaren geleden al eens voor werd behandeld. Die medicatie zou hem hebben doen geloven dat er in zijn enkelband afluisterapparatuur zat, zei hij tegen de rechter.
De 70-jarige Bolsonaro was alleen op het moment dat hij met een soldeerbout probeerde de enkelband af te krijgen. Toen hij weer "bij zinnen kwam", liet hij zijn beveiliging weten wat hij had geprobeerd. Hij werd gearresteerd wegens een "hoog vluchtrisico".
Bolsonaro werd eerder veroordeeld tot 27 jaar celstraf, maar zijn advocaten zeggen dat hij wegens zijn gezondheid niet naar de gevangenis kan.
SARAJEVO (ANP) - Een trouwe bondgenoot van de separatistische Bosnisch-Servische leider Milorad Dodik heeft de presidentsverkiezingen in Srpska gewonnen. Volgens de eerste uitslagen kreeg Sinisa Karan 50,89 procent van de stemmen in de autonome Servische Republiek binnen Bosnië.
De verkiezingen waren uitgeschreven nadat Dodik eerder dit jaar uit het ambt was gezet. Hij was veroordeeld tot een gevangenisstraf, omdat hij zich niet had gehouden aan de afspraken van een vredesakkoord, ook wel het Dayton-akkoord genoemd. Dat leidde tot een ernstige crisis in Bosnië.
Dodik dreigde regelmatig het etnisch Servische deel van Bosnië en Herzegovina af te scheiden van de rest van het land.
Verkiezingswinnaar Karan heeft aangekondigd het beleid van Dodik voort te zetten. Dodik staat bekend als pro-Russisch en eurosceptisch.
De opkomst bij de verkiezingen was volgens de voorlopige uitslag met zo'n 35 procent laag.
