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Grosfeld and Lilienthal, telling each that he wanted him involved more than he wanted the other. The pair ultimately realized that Fanning would never sign. "He was just negotiating for the sake of negotiating," Lilienthal said. Finally, Grosfeld and Lilienthal threw up their hands. Grosfeld moved on to investigate other possible investments, and Lilienthal went on a surfing trip to Peru.

NAPSTER KEPT ADDING MORE USERS and more music. A few hundred users became a few thousand, then ten thousand, then fifty thousand. Cash at Napster was tight, but Fanning didn't seem worried. He had plenty of other angles to play. He returned to Draper and said he needed at least some money right away if the firm was still interested. Spooked by Fanning's background, the legal worries, and the continuing lack of a proven CEO, Draper agreed to give Napster only a $50,000 loan. In return, Draper got the future right to buy more than 1 million shares, or about 10 percent of the company, at 20 cents apiece, which was the price then being bandied about with other investors.

Fanning went after more of Parker's connections as well, some of whom Parker knew through his UUnet guru, Jonathon Perrelli. One of those men was Scott Newlin, who had little technology background but had done well for himself as president of Sparks Personnel Services, a temporary-employment agency in Maryland. Newlin agreed to meet with Parker and John and Shawn Fanning to hear about Napster. Parker didn't say much at the meeting, but Shawn impressed Newlin by speaking passionately about the project while sporting a T-shirt and shorts. "Shawn is a very nice guy, just a natural kid," Newlin said later. The problem was that John Fanning would barely let his nephew talk. Fanning "did all the speaking, and I just felt it was too much of a control issue. It seemed like to him, it was a quick in, quick out. He just wanted to sell it quickly." Newlin decided to pass on the deal for that reason. Some time later, he and Perrelli talked about making a $1.2 million offer for the company that would leave them in charge. But in a replay of the stalemate with Grosfeld and Lilienthal, Fanning said he wouldn't give up majority control. "What makes you think you should have majority control when