McCartney joins Internet venture

NEW YORK First the Queen. Now Sir Paul.

The former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, has joined the ranks ofInternet investors. He's part of a group including Capital Z Partnersand Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that took an undisclosed stake in MagexHoldings Plc, creators of software allowing online purchases andsales of music and other content while preventing unauthorizedcopying.

The investment by McCartney, 58, comes in addition to the $80million that closely held Magex raised in April from Goldman, CapitalZ Financial Services Fund II LP, NatWest Bank Plc, Reuters Group Plc,General Electric Co.'s GE Capital and Soros Private Equity PartnersLLC.

"He's promoting and protecting the music business, supportingmusic copyrights," said Geoff Baker, McCartney's spokesman. Themusician's investment in Magex is "sizable," Baker said, declining toelaborate.

One of four lads from Liverpool who started the Beatles, the left-handed bass-playing McCartney was co-author and lead singer of manyof the group's most popular songs. As a celebrity investor inInternet companies he joins Queen Elizabeth II, who realized 1.1million pounds ($1.7 million) on the public share sale ofGetmapping.com, a creator of online maps, after investing 100,000pounds.

McCartney, worth an estimated $827 million, according to theSunday Times of London, was knighted by the Queen in 1996.

New York-based Magex yesterday named W. Patrick Campbell, formerlyexecutive vice president of Ameritech Corp. and president of Columbia/Tristar Pictures Home Video, as chairman and chief executive. As CEO,he succeeds Peter Beverley, who becomes vice chairman and willcontinue to lead Magex's European operations out of London.

Seagram Co. Ltd.'s Universal Music Group yesterday announced thattrials of its premium digital download format, called "bluematter,"will begin this week, with Magex as the provider of financialclearing services.

Magex technology is aimed at allowing secure digital distributiontransactions while preventing copyright violations.