THE SMART MONEY LEAVES THE MAJOR LABELS

Troubles for Edgar Bronfman, whose Warner Group floatation has tanked in the US. The IPO price had already been cut from the USD24 a share he'd been dreaming of to a more realistic USD17, but on the opening of trading the shares fell further, dropping 7% to USD15.75. The label probably did itself with no favours by announcing the cash raised was going to, erm, pay off some of the USD2.5bn debt they're carrying, as that simultaneously suggested they didn't have very much of a plan for the future, and pointed out just how deeply in hock Warners had had to get itself to keep trading in a world it doesn't really understand.

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