Vivendi knocks Napster

Vivendi has announced that it will not be joining the Bertelsmann and Napster joint venture because the file-swapping software company is expecting to receive too high a percentage of revenue.

Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier said the forty per cent revenue Napster would receive from the partnership is too much for a company whose only expense is bandwidth. Bertelsmann and Napster announced a service earlier this month which will charge users a small monthly fee. However, Messiers said he would consider licensing Napster's catalogue to other distribution companies.