Napster Q1 2007 Earnings Conference Call Transcript (NAPS)

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2006-08-02 19:51:26.0

Tags: Napster Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Kit Spring - Stifel Nicolaus.

Kit Spring - Stifel Nicolaus

Hi. Can you tell us what you might do if Microsoft did go to a closed system as far as a digital rights management solution for your portable product? Can you give us some rough ranges of what the cash burn for the fiscal year might be?

Chris Gorog

Thanks, Kit. I'll take the first one, and Nand will address cash burn. Well, first of all, I would say that I think it's quite unlikely that Microsoft will abandon the Windows Media audio platform and their DRM. Specifically, they have told me that they are not doing that, and I think if you just think it through intellectually, I think it's still very important strategically for their company to support a hardware and software ecosystem, to support their platform.

Now whether they go off to the side and try to create a closed experience and have Windows Media Audio with some additional bells and whistles to close other hardware players out or something to that effect, that is a different issue. I think the more threshold issue is, will they continue supporting Window Media audio and the platform? I think they will, and they have said they will.

Now, that said, I would quickly tell you that in I think what is a pretty remote case in our view, that they actually abandoned their platform all together, I think that it is pretty clear that there's a number of candidates that would rush in to try to play the role as the ubiquitous open platform.

You have OMA out there, the Open Mobile Alliance, you've got Marlin out there from Sony. We are currently compatible with WMA obviously. But also OMA, AAC, Cleartex MP3. So our technologies have already been built to be highly versatile and really DRM agnostic. While we believe there is a tremendous amount to offer from the WMA platform, we are far from dependent on it. So overall, we don't really see this having any impact on us.

As to the cash burn issue, Nand, do you want to take that one?

Nand Gangwani

Kit, as you know, we don't guide specifically on the cash burn going forward, but as you heard in a call late last year, we committed to a substantial reduction in the cash burn, and we have executed I think very well on that front, as you've seen. We continue to remain committed to the cause of reducing cash burn over the longer term, getting to profitability. So I think I'll leave it at that.

 

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