Friday, March 16, 2007

Universal offers asset dump to get hands on BMG publishing

Major labels might be a bit dull when it comes to their product, but they're endlessly inventive when it comes to their business dealings. In a bid to persuade the EU to let them swallow down BMG's publishing arm, Universal are offering to firesale many of their less-attractive assets. The key sandbag to be dropped is Zomba, once a powerhouse of Spice Girls, Britney and Backstreet Boys, now reduced to shuffling back-catalogue of troubled stars. It's unlikely to persuade Indie representatives IMPALA to remove their objections to the deal, mind.


3 comments:

asdasdas said...

I imagine you've realised by now that Spice Girls were never a Zomba act... they were Virgin's key signing in the great musical dumbing down war of the mid-90s.

Chris Brown said...

The link seems to imply that, as I suspected, this is Zomba publishing, who were the publishers for various Spice songs. I'm open to correction but I think Sony BMG already own the Zomba record company.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Chris is indeed correct - it's Zomba's publishing we're talking about. But Dr Mabuse is also correct: the Spice Girls publishing is actually owned by 19, which is also set to be part of the deal.

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