New York - Electronics chain Best Buy is to buy online music service Napster Inc for 121 million dollars in a move to expand the retailer's digital music offerings, the companies said Monday.

Best Buy will pay a total of 121 million dollars for Napster, which has 700,000 subscribers to its digital entertainment services. The deal represented a price of 2.65 dollars per share, almost double Napster's closing price before the announcement of the deal. Napster also has 67 million dollars in the bank.

Best Buy chief operating officer Brian Dunn said that the deal will help boost the retailer's online media operations.

"Over time, we hope to strengthen our offerings to consumers, who we believe will increasingly seek devices and solutions that enable them to access their content wherever, whenever and however they want," Dunn said.

Napster is the company that first popularized online music with an innovative file-sharing program in 1999. But it declared bankruptcy after a court ordered shutdown in 2001 for copyright infringement. It was eventually bought by online subscription company Roxio. (dpa)