snapshot 6/26/08

Radiohead releases live video album on iTunes
Radiohead has released a live video album exclusively on iTunes to coincide with the band's run of U.K. outdoor concerts. "In Rainbows -- From the Basement," made available Tuesday, features the British rock band performing its current album at the Hospital studio in London's Covent Garden.


Sony to start digitally distributing movies before they come out on DVD
As you may know, Sony owns a movie studio. That studio is releasing a big budget Will Smith superhero movie this Summer called Hancock. When Hancock is available to buy in a few months, guess where you will first be able to buy it? Not iTunes, not even DVD, but Sony’s own digital distribution service to be launched this Fall, Sony chief executive Howard Stringer told an audience in Tokyo this morning.

This is part of Sony’s plan to make its television and video game divisions profitable once again. Its new Bravia line of televisions will be able to receive downloads via the Internet without hooking up to cable or satellite. The same will likely be true for its Playstation 3 video game console, which will roll out its digital movie download service this summer. If it can get access to Sony movies before they are released anywhere else, that could certainly help the company move more units — as well as give it a foothold in an arena it’s already late to: Digital distribution in the living room.


Napster Activists: Company Worth At Least As Much As Last.Fm
Back in May we mentioned that three subscribers/shareholders of Napster had launched an improbable proxy fight hoping to get themselves representation on the company’s board. That still looks like a pretty tall order for the trio, though they’ve filed an interesting analysis on why they’re pressing their case. The core argument: Napster’s market value is basically zero (market cap minus saleable assets), yet CBS (NYSE: CBS) paid $280 million for Last.fm. Given that Napster should be able to do everything Last.fm can do and more, and it actually has real paying customers, the company should be valued higher. The fact that it’s not valued higher, say the shareholders, is due to a “lack of confidence in governance.”

By their math, even if you just valued Napster by breaking it up—selling all its assets and paying off its liabilities— the company would be worth $1.79 per share, compared to the $1.45 per share, or $69 million market value it trades at now.