Time Warner Sells Warner Music Group. No EMI Merger.

More big changes in the major label world: Upstaging EMI's
bid to merge with the Warner Music Group,
an investors group lead by Canadian media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. has reached
an agreement to buy the Warner Music Group
from Time Warner for 2.6 billion
dollars (US). This prevents further consolidation of the music industry since
it halts the rumored merger with EMI
and makes Warner Music a private company.

A Warner memo says the deal creates "the world's largest privately held
independent music company... We view this transaction as a positive one for
all of us at WMG. It is a return to the roots of this industry, when privately
held, pure music companies set the pace. Indeed, the sole focus of the investor
group is to create the world's premiere music company."
The Warner Music Group includes Warner
Bros Records, Reprise, Maverick,
Atlantic, Sire
and Elektra amongst others. Their stable
of bands includes Green Day, The Distillers, Hot Hot Heat, Less Than Jake, Glassjaw,
The Hives, The Living End, Avenged Sevenfold, The Kinison, My Chemical Romance and
The Flaming Lips along with a large back-catalogue that includes the Talking
Heads and The Ramones. The full press release is here.