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Warner-EMI: Another go-round?
Times reports that Edgar Bronfman met with UK label giant's shareholders earlier this month in an effort to make another bid.
Edgar Bronfman Jr. isn't ready to give up.
Bronfman: No surrender.
The CEO of Warner Music Group met with shareholders of EMI in London earlier this month to tout the benefits of a merger of the two label giants, according to a report this week by the Times.
The move is an effort to revive an expensive game of chicken that has seen each company make multiple unsuccessful takeover bids for one another, the last of which were valued at approximately $4.6 billion. But the efforts of both sides were squelched in July by a European court ruling that annulled the 2004 merger between Sony and BMG, raising major regulatory questions about any prospective Warner-EMI deal.
Citing anonymous sources, the Times reported that Bronfman traveled to London earlier this month to meet with Fidelity, which holds a 7 percent stake in EMI, as well as Aberdeen Asset Management and some hedge funds that also have stakes in EMI. Bronfman reportedly assured the shareholders that the merger would be able to obtain regulatory approval from European Union regulators.
Shares in both companies were up today on the report.
The long-rumored combination of EMI and WMG would create the world's second-largest music company and boast a star-studded roster of EMI artists like Coldplay, Gorillaz, Norah Jones, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones and WMG stars like Madonna, Green Day, Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Paul Simon.
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