AOL, Bertelsmann mull music merger
(USA Today)
The music business looks poised for more consolidation. When this game of musical chairs is over, the world's major companies could dwindle to two or three from the current Big Five, financial analysts say.
The latest move in the troubled industry: AOL Time Warner and Bertelsmann are in exclusive talks to merge their music units, Warner Music and BMG, people familiar with the talks say.
A union of the world's fourth- and fifth-biggest music companies would create a giant rivaling No. 1 Universal Music and boast artists such as Madonna (news - web sites), Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston.
The primary goal is to cut costs. ''These companies figure one and one equals three, so there are going to be a lot of mergers in this business,'' predicts analyst Jeff Pittsburg of Pittsburg Research.
The companies hope to agree by summer's end on what's being described as a 50-50 joint venture in which some cash may change hands, these people say. The companies declined to comment.
But major hurdles remain. A major sticking point, the sources say, is that the companies remain far apart on valuations for their units. Also, British music company EMI has talked about deals with both recently and could play spoiler once the ''exclusive'' negotiating period expires.
Any deal would have to pass muster with industry regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. A planned merger of Warner Music and EMI was scuttled in 2000 by European regulators.
But with music's sales slump -- down 7% in 2002 to $32.2 billion -- and piracy problems, analysts think both regulators and Wall Street now would be more positive about deals that could stabilize the industry. ''This could create another dominant music company,'' says Mike Gallant, director of media research at CIBC World Markets. ''Scale and cost cutting would be something the market would look upon favorably.''
Meanwhile, Gallant adds, if No. 3 EMI is left at the altar by a Warner/BMG merger, it ''would be under pressure to do a deal'' possibly with No. 2 Sony.
7/2-MTV Video Music Awards!
Don't forget to VOTE for Whitney's "One Of Those Days" at MTV.com!
7/1-Essence Magazine!
Whitney was the cover story for Essence Magazine's July issue. Pictures from the issue can be found on the main page in the next few weeks. You can look up this wonderful article at www.essence.com and read part of the article there. If you wish, you can click here and read the FULL article.
(The Platnium Club)
6/20-Beffy and Charlie (Yahoo! News)
"Houston, Brown to Hit Big Screen Together" A Must Read!
Talk about this in the Fourm
"Houston, Brown to Hit Big Screen Together" A Must Read!
Talk about this in the Fourm
NEW YORK - You've heard of gangsta rappers. But gangsta singers?
That's what Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown are looking to become. People magazine reports that the singer and her hubby are in talks to take on their first big-screen project together. In the film "Beffy and Charlie," they will play musicians who are also gangsters. Brown says they will "be singing, robbing, stealing — a lot of things people might not want to see us do."
But he adds their appearance "is going to be special." No word on who the film will be done with — or when it's supposed to be hitting theaters.
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