We read the piece below from the Financial Times and went, Eh.
It’s only about the Recorded Music Side, anyway.
The real money is in EMI’s Music Publishing.
For months, the rumours about who will purchase have been swirling: Warner Music were going to buy EMI.
No, Sony was.
No, BMG would purchase EMI Publishing.
Yes, key Warner Music execs were in Beijing last week.
But not, as some have reported to talk about EMI.
They were there working on a “China strategy”.
Lyor Cohen, Edgar Bronfman- the whole lot of them.
A “China MUSIC Strategy?”
Is there such a beast?
The only “worthwhile” Warner Music news received was that the popular and very nice John Reid has been given the heave-ho.
As for EMI, even some senior EMI executives were expecting the company to be sold last weekend.
Will it be this weekend?
Will Citigroup who have inherited this albatross “sell cheap”?
We doubt it.
We reckon, they’ll hold on to it for another year and see how the economy changes.
If it gets worse, they might cut their losses and get rid of EMI and get back to the business of banking.
But wait: What banking?
Universal closes in on $1.9bn bid for EMI
Vivendi’s Universal Music is closing in on a knockout bid worth about $1.9bn for EMI’s recorded music business, in a surprise finish to the drawn-out auction that could let Citigroup recoup more of its investment in the British music group than expected.
Universal and Citigroup declined to comment on Thursday night and people familiar with the negotiations warned that the deal might yet fall apart or be broken up by a late counter-offer from Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, which owns Warner Music, EMI’s close rival.
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