📸

“BMG is offering us a gift and pretty soon BMG will get fed up and take the gift back!! Think about it, wouldn’t you do the same thing if you were in their shoes!”

Parker volunteered to try for Conway’s support and drove to see him at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel on the eve of the crucial board meeting. Caught in traffic on U.S. 101 coming north into San Francisco, Parker dialed and redialed Conway’s cell phone from the car, not realizing that Conway was on the phone with Shawn. When he finally got through, Parker told Conway that he had done some rough calculating and figured that Angel Investors stood to gain or lose only about $100,000 if Fanning’s ploy worked, everyone’s shares turned into common, and the $15 million went to all holders equally. “The only way I come out ahead is if the coup wins,” Parker implored Conway. “I don’t want anything to do with a coup,” Conway said.

Parker finally reached the Fairmont, on top of the city’s old-money Nob Hill neighborhood, and walked inside to meet Conway in the lobby bar. Conway was dressed in his usual casual style, with a shiny green jacket over a polo shirt. As expected, he continued to argue against a ninth-inning attack on the board. But as he turned the tables and argued that Parker should cast his votes against the insurrection, an idea struck Parker. He knew the math was close. But why was Conway fighting so hard, when it was clearly in Parker’s interest to back the coup? It dawned on Parker that he and another shareholder he knew, Freeloader cofounder Mark Pincus, had the swing votes, that without them the coup would fail. And, he said, “Conway convinced me that Fanning was going to screw everything up. So I thought, let’s use the fact that he’s going to screw it up to our advantage.” Parker walked outside into the blustery afternoon air and dialed Shawn on his phone, pacing back and forth. “Hey, I figured it out!” Parker told him. “I have enough votes!”

Parker believed he and Pincus, who had taken Napster shares in a swap of investment holdings with Amram, were now the key to the deal. He decided he could use his leverage either to force the upstart directors into office or, even better, to convince Hummer Winblad to fork over more of the kitty in exchange for betraying the coup. “Hummer’s being greedy. Everyone’s being greedy. We’re all fighting over scraps,” Parker said after hanging up with Shawn. “Is the coup actually going to happen?”

📸