upcoming mergers sony/bmg & emi/warner?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Soon there will only be 1 record company in the world. And it will be state run. It's always darkest before...the storm.
 
Record companies are on their way out. But first, they'll establish a monopoly and torture us further.
 
OUT OF HARMONY

By ERICA COPULSKY and TIM ARANGO New York Post
--------------------------------------------------

November 14, 2003 -- Time Warner Inc.'s top brass is divided over what to do with its troubled music operation - a split that is expected to be resolved in the days leading up to next Thursday's board meeting, The Post has learned.
The discussion centers on whether to keep a foot in the beleaguered music industry by selling a majority stake in Warner Music to U.K. group EMI, or to unload the entire division to private investors.

Time Warner Chairman and CEO Dick Parsons is said to be pushing for a deal with EMI, while his two lieutenants, Jeff Bewkes and Don Logan, have been leaning more toward exiting the music business, sources said. "Management is united in finding the best solution for shareholders," said a Time Warner official.

The issue is likely to be resolved in the next few days, and sources say Parsons is expected to bring a recommendation to a key board meeting scheduled for next Thursday.

At the meeting, the board will consider the range of alternatives for Warner Music, and is expected to make a decision on the future of the music division, sources familiar with the matter said.

Time Warner has informed bidding parties that their proposals must be submitted by early next week so they can be reviewed ahead of the meeting.

EMI is finalizing a bid that offers Time Warner as much as $1 billion in cash and a roughly 20 percent to 25 percent stake in the combined recorded-music company, sources said.

Meanwhile, an investor group that includes former Seagram Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr., billionaire investor Haim Saban and buyout firm Thomas H. Lee Co. is readying a bid to buy both Time Warner's recorded-music and music-publishing operations in a deal likely to be valued at close to $2.8 billion.

Parsons is known to have a personal attachment to the music industry, and was one of the principal architects of the original proposed merger between Warner Music and EMI, which was shot down a few years ago.

Meanwhile, Bewkes, Time Warner's entertainment and networks chairman - who is leading the deal negotiations - and Logan, chairman of Time Warner's media and communications group, are said to be strongly in favor of getting out of the business altogether.

They would prefer to sell all of Warner Music to a private equity group, such as the one led by Bronfman.

"Warner Music has never been able to be integrated into the rest of the company," noted one source close to the company.

"It's always been its own fiefdom, with rich salaries and lots of perks. Almost everyone on the corporate side would like to just wash their hands of it."
The concern internally, said the source, "is whether Parsons will ultimately choose a deal based on the merits of the overall corporate package or on a personal affinity for the music business."

However, others contend that Parsons is truly torn about exiting music because he believes the industry is on the rebound.

An EMI deal is fraught with risks. In addition to regulatory issues in both the United States and Europe, Warner now has a surprise roadblock to factor into consideration: the planned BMG-Sony merger, announced earlier this month. However, a deal with a private group would have less regulatory risk and more certainty of closing.


http://www.iht.com/articles/117884.html 17.11.03

After 20 years and billions of dollars in music sales, Madonna's relationship with Time Warner is showing signs of strain over the future of her label, Maverick Records, while negotiations over the value of her Time Warner stock options lie just ahead.

Maverick, whose artists include Alanis Morissette and Michelle Branch, is one of the biggest successes among the dozens of recording joint ventures often called "vanity labels," that major music companies have created for their marquee stars over the past few decades.

But Madonna is locked in a dispute with Time Warner's Warner Music division over whether it will continue to fund Maverick after their partnership agreement expires at the end of next year, people involved in the discussions said last week.

(...)

The Maverick talks also are a prelude to another set of difficult negotiations that will test the extent of Madonna's influence at Time Warner and its Warner Music unit. In 1999 the pop star received options in Time Warner stock initially valued according to a complicated formula at $20 million to $25 million. The options might have been worth many times as much if Time Warner's share price had risen as much as Wall Street analysts then predicted. But since AOL took over Time Warner in 2001, the stock has plunged, making her options nearly worthless.

Unlike most disappointed shareholders or Time Warner employees, Madonna has other recourse because of her star status. She is expected to seek payment equal to the options' $25 million initial estimated value. To do so, she can rely on various forms of ongoing leverage, such as the ability to deliver or withhold her records.

Warner Music executives say that the options were just that and not a guarantee. But in arguing with Madonna they risk alienating one of the label's biggest and best-known stars at a moment when Time Warner has put the division up for sale.

About two months ago, Madonna met with Richard Parsons, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, at his office in Rockefeller Center to discuss the matter personally, but they failed to resolve the differences.

(...)
 
Parsons is gonna end up with Bronfman. seems that EMI/ Warner is not going to happen, but Seagram buys Warner (wondering who they?re gonna sign). Which paves the way for the Sony/BMG merger. Changes at the board of directors at Bertelsmann.
 
Back
Top Bottom