Universal Seen as EMusic Suitor

Universal seen as EMusic
suitor

A unit of France’s Vivendi Universal is believed to be courting
EMusic.com (EMUS). The online music distributor (www.emusic.com)
issued a news release Thursday saying that "a major, publicly
held media company" has indicated its intention to acquire the
Redwood City, Calif.-based firm in a cash transaction. Shares of
EMusic.com closed Thursday’s trading at 34 cents, down from a 52-week
high of $6.50. Published reports Friday identified Universal Music
Group as the proposed buyer. EMusic.com’s Web operation, it is
suggested, will be a distribution platform for Duet, the digital music
subscription service to be launched this summer by Vivendi (V) and
Sony Music Entertainment (SNE).

AOL goes offline

America Online subscribers experienced outages in e-mail and
Instant Messenger services on Thursday. Several hour-long breakdowns
were blamed by the company on what it said was a widespread power
outage in northern Virginia, where the unit of AOL Time Warner (AOL)
has its headquarters.

President logs off e-mail

Privacy concerns have prompted President George W. Bush to stop
using e-mail. "I used to be an avid e-mailer, and I e-mailed to
my daughters or e-mailed to my father, for example, and I don’t want
those e-mails to be in the public domain," the president told the
American Society of Newspaper Editors on Thursday, Reuters reported.
His private communications could be subject to freedom of information
laws, he explained.

McVeigh Webcast sought

Entertainment Network Inc. said the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of Indiana will hear oral arguments on April 17
regarding its bid to require the government to grant permission to
transmit the execution of Timothy McVeigh live over the Internet.
McVeigh, convicted of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a federal
office building, has waived his right to appeal his death sentence.
"The government is sponsoring the killing of the human being who
was responsible for this horrendous act, and we believe the people
have an absolute right to witness this action," said David
Marshlack, chief executive of Tampa-based ENI, who will be present at
the hearing. The warden of the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute has
rejected ENI’s request that a Webcam be put in the execution chamber.
If it wins its case, ENI says it will donate proceeds the $1.95 fee to
be charged viewers to charities established for bombing victims. ENI’s
other Webcasting services have included VoyeurDorm.com and
DudeDorm.com.

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