EMI Publishing Goes to Sony, Label to Universal

NOW THERES REALLY ONLY 3 MAJOR RECORD COMPANIES

November 11, 2011
By Ed Christman, New York

As expected from the swirl of activity this week, Vivendi and its subsidiary, Universal Music Group announced this morning that they have signed with Citigroup a “definitive agreement” to purchase EMI’s recorded-music division for 1.2 billion pounds ($1.9 billion), and Citigroup is expected to announce later today that it will sell EMI Music Publishing to a Sony Corp.-led investment group for about $2.2 billion.

Citigroup finally accepted a proposal from Universal that would have the bank assume pension fund liabilities while UMG takes on the regulatory risk.

Sony, Universal Heat Up EMI Auction

In a surprise turnabout, the supposed $1.2 billion bid that Billboard and others media outlets have been quoting all along as the price tendered by UMG turned out to be pounds, not dollars, which means it is offering $1.9 billion, well above the $1.5 billion-$1.6 billion Access Industries was thought to be.

While IMPALA has been making noise that it wants the European Commission to block the deal on anti-trust grounds, a major label source pointed out that UMG/EMI’s combined market share will be about 36% worldwide, which is below the 40% global market share that causes concern for regulators.