Warner Music Group Corp., an Access Industries company, has entered an agreement to acquire the Parlophone Label Group from Universal Music Group for around $765 million in an all-cash transaction. Parlophone, formerly a part of EMI Music, has an artist roster and catalog of recordings that includes Coldplay, Daft Punk, Danger Mouse, David Guetta, Deep Purple, Duran Duran, Iron Maiden, Jethro Tull, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Tina Turner.
In order to receive clearance from EU regulators to purchase EMI’s recorded music division, Universal had to agree to sell off certain EMI assets, such as Parlophone. Under that $1.9 billion deal, Universal took control of EMI’s Capitol and Virgin labels, which led to Capitol Nashville being absorbed by UMG Nashville. In a separate transaction, EMI’s publishing arm was sold to an investor consortium led by Sony, resulting in the local merger of EMI Music Nashville and Sony/ATV.
The New York Times reports Warner Music beat out a few other bidders to purchase Parlophone: “Sony Music and BMG Rights Management had made a joint bit, as did the music impresarios Simon Fuller and Chris Blackwell; the other major bidder was Ronald Perelman’s company MacAndrews & Forbes…The deal is a win for Warner, which since 2000 has made several unsuccessful efforts to buy or merge with EMI. In addition to greater market share, it will allow Warner to bulk up its relatively weak international infrastructure.”
The closing of the transaction is expected to occur mid-year 2013, subject to certain regulatory approvals.
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Sarah Skates has worked in the music business for more than a decade and is a longtime contributor to MusicRow.View Author Profile
