A brand that was notoriously connected to music piracy before reemerging as a subscription music service has been sold to Infinite Reality for $207 million.

The tech startup announced Tuesday it had bought Napster in hopes of transforming the streaming service into a social music platform where artists can connect with fans and better monetize off their work.

“The internet has evolved from desktop to mobile, from mobile to social, and now we are entering the immersive era. Yet, music streaming has remained largely the same. It’s time to reimagine what’s possible,” said Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos in a blog post.

Among its plans to update Napster, Infinite Reality said it will create virtual 3D spaces that will allow fans to attend concerts and give musicians or labels the ability to sell digital and physical merchandise.

Artists will also receive a wider range of metrics and analytics to better understand the behavior of platform users.

Napster was launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker and quickly became the first significant peer-to-peer file-sharing application. It shuttered in early 2000s after the record industry and popular rock band Metallica sued over copyright violations.

Trump’s crypto empire adding stablecoin

President Donald Trump’s crypto empire is expanding with the recent announcements of a new dollar-backed stablecoin and investment funds for digital assets. The moves are the latest in the norm-defying ways the president has leaned into crypto projects that could significantly boost his personal wealth while in office.

World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture Trump helped launch last year, announced Tuesday that it plans to launch USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.

Stablecoins are among the fastest growing segments of the cryptocurrency industry. They are typically backed by a government-issued currency, like the dollar, or to gold, making them better suited to commercial transactions than more volatile digital assets like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

“We’re offering a digital dollar stablecoin that sovereign investors and major institutions can confidently integrate into their strategies for seamless, secure cross-border transactions,” Zach Witkoff, a World Liberty Financial co-founder, said in a statement Tuesday.

Kroger blames Albertsons for merger’s demise as grocery chains battle in court

Kroger is denying Albertsons’ claims that it didn’t do enough to ensure regulatory approval of the companies’ planned supermarket merger.

In court papers filed Tuesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Kroger said Albertsons disregarded the companies’ merger agreement and worked secretly with a partner, C&S Wholesalers, to try to force Kroger to divest more stores to C&S.

Kroger also claimed that Albertsons was secretly planning to sue Kroger if the deal didn’t go through long before the merger actually fell apart in December. Kroger said in Tuesday’s court filing that it should not be forced to pay Albertsons a $600 million termination fee as well as billions of dollars in legal fees.

In a statement Tuesday, Albertsons said it was Kroger that failed to honor the merger agreement.

“Kroger’s self-interested conduct doomed the merger, and we are now focused on returning value to Albertsons’ shareholders to compensate for those losses,” Albertsons said.

Kroger and Albertsons first proposed the merger in 2022. They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart and Costco.

Compiled from Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.