Sony Music and BMG team up to bid for Universal’s Parlophone
SONY Music and BMG have joined forces to bid for Parlophone and other EMI assets being sold by Vivendi’s Universal Music Group.
The pair are understood to have agreed to bid jointly to increase their chances of winning the highly sought-after assets over other suitors.
If their bid is successful, they will then split the assets between them, according to the Financial Times. The move also comes four years after the two companies ended their joint venture Sony BMG,
Universal is being forced to sell the business to satisfy regulators’ concerns about its $1.9bn takeover of the recorded music arm of EMI.
The group has received offers from more than nine bidders including Warner, Blackwell Fuller – a venture backed by Lord Jacob Rothschild’s RIT Capital Partners and Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records – and Ronald Perelman’s investment firm MacAndrews & Forbes.
BMG, the music publishing firm backed by Bertelsmann and private equity group KKR, bought UK music label Mute last month. Bids for Parlophone, one of EMI’s most prized assets, and other labels are due to be made in the next few weeks.