The electronics chain is snatching up the once-thriving music service for $121 million ($2.65 per share), it announced this morning. The move comes just weeks after word of internal turmoil and hints of “strategic alternatives” in the works.

Under the new deal, Best Buy will get all of Napster’s subscribers — said to somehow be in the range of 700,000 — along with its platform and mobile capabilities. Napster’s senior management will move into new roles within Best Buy. The 140 employees at Napster’s LA headquarters are expected to keep their jobs and locations, at least for the time being.

Can the move save the struggling download service, which hasn’t seen its heyday since certain events transpired back in the early part of the century? Let’s be honest: Probably not. It’ll no doubt grow from its current stagnant state — surely the soon-to-come heavy in-store push and packaged deals will help — but all the vending machines in the world won’t let it hold a torch next to the music monster that is iTunes. As Paid Content points out, both Best Buy and Circuit City have played with the idea of digital distribution in the past with little ending effect. The sale can only help Napster in the long run, but one wonders how much it’ll ultimately help Best Buy.

The deal is expected to be completed before the end of the year. Wonder what Shawn Fanning’s thinking right now…

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Electronic Arts confirms today that it has purchased ThreeSF and its video game-based social network startup Rupture — a move predicted nearly a full month ago. EA plans to add the site into its growing arsenal of gaming services. The company bought Mythic Entertainment in 2006.

Fanning has struggled since the glory days of Napster, back when widespread free music sharing was in its infancy. He tried his hand at another music service, albeit with download fees, called SnoCap. That venture, though, never took off and was eventually sold as well.

Whether or not Fanning will continue to work at ThreeSF after the acquisition has not yet been made clear.

Image: Wikipedia

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The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed a bill called the Pro-IP Act with a whopping 410 to 10 vote. The bill would create a new “copyright enforcement division” at the Department of Justice, which would serve as the lair for our impressively titled “copyright enforcement czar.” He and his band of new-age cops would be empowered with tracking down illegal file-sharers and even seizing their property if they see fit.

“Intellectual property protection is among the key issues that will determine America’s competitiveness in the 21st century,” Rep. John Conyers, one of the bill’s authors, released in a statement.

“We feel it’s more important to spend millions of taxpayer dollars finding people who steal 99-cent songs rather than focusing on stopping actual dangerous, violent crime,” he forgot to add.

The Senate still has to sign off on the idea, then it’d go to the president’s desk for approval.

In other file sharing news, Napster guru Shawn Fanning is finally closing in on his long-awaited pay day, according to our friends over at TechCrunch. Fanning’s social network startup Rupture is said to be on the brink of a $30 million buyout by Electronic Arts. It’d be Fanning’s first big success since a five-foot-seven Danish drummer helped put his brainchild into the ground back at the turn of the century.

Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

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