Richards reports, “Private equity firm Terra Firma is set to cede control of EMI to Citigroup — the bank that loaned it billions to help buy the label which despite record iTunes demand for Beatles content has been unable to generate enough cash to bail them out of trouble… Should Citi eventually gain control of EMI, it’s likely to put the label up for sale with Steve Jobs tipped to be an interested buyer, however it is not known whether he wants to buy EMI as a private investment or for Apple.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacRaven” for the heads up.]
Steve needs a second CEO job ever since Disney took over Pixar.
So it appears Mr. Johnny Rotten was right about, “EMI”!
@ Follower,
Agreed, clearly Steve is feeling like he has to many free hours in the day since the Disney/Pixar deal.
EMI has a fantastic classical and opera catalogue.
Ahh Steve Job’s obsession of the Beatle will be complete if Apple buys EMI and wiggle his way into owning Michael Jackson’s Beatle estate too.
But why would he spend millions/billions for something he has already negotiated and can download for $1 dollar? We all now has the ability to download the music now and that is all he ever wanted.
Why do people keep throwing out hair-brain ideas how to spend Apple’s cash. It’s not your money, it’s mine……kind-of….
Now that I’m thinking about it, Mikey Dell was kind-of right. Steve shouldn’t shut down Apple but he could give the investor their money back by doing a little stock buy-back.
Hey, maybe Mikey wasn’t completely stupid.
Hey Steve. Buy emi and give away the entire beatles catalogue with every iPod as a preservation of the arts rather than as a money-making deal.
“they belong to everyone now,” jobs told a stunned audience.
blah blah blah…
The Jackson thing is about the songwriting copyrights or the so-called mechanical rights that used to be vested in Northern Songs, which then became part of ATV Music (which was eventually owned by the Australian magnate, Robert Holmes a Court). It was when Holmes died that the mechanicals again came up for grabs and were acquired by Jackson and ultimately turned into a joint-venture with Sony called – with no imagination – Sony/ATV Music.
The JV still exists with the Jackson Family Trust and Sony as the sole shareholders; Sony have the rights to buy out the Trust’s shares for $250 million.
In reality, the value behind purchasing EMI is a massive back-catalog that comprises all of EMI, Parlophone, Capitol Records, Harvest, Chrysalis, Charisma, Virgin to name the ones that I can remember off the top of my head. There are also considerable mechanical interests with EMI Music Publishing allegedly being the largest music publishing company in the world.
Basically, you get everything from Sinatra to Genesis and, if memory serves, Jethro Tull to The Pet Shop Boys which isn’t a bad range of stuff: the problem is EMI doesn’t really do modern – it’s been marginalised by the likes of Universal Music Group and Sony for a very, very long time and only really looks good when compared to say Warner Music Group which really is a basket case.
When Terra Firma acquired EMI, I seem to recall it cost them about £1.8 billion which even then would have been loose change to Apple.
If SJ is the interested buyer, the. It’s a private investment. Otherwise Apple would be the interested buyer.
This could be SJ’s chance to effect some real change in the music industry, something that has been a long time coming.
EMI & the Beatles left it too late, to make any good money from iTunes. Everyone who liked them, already had their songs & to go out & spend extra cash on them, was a waste.
Apple’s iTunes head just left Apple and starts at EMI in January.
Content ownership + delivery might be a bigger legal mess than Steve wants to deal with. Just like someone like Comcast owning NBC, Apple owning EMI would raise some regulatory flags, or at least make other music publishers cry “Foul!” Steve buying it for a private investment firm would be more imaginable.
Hello EMI
GOODBYE
Disney should buy EMI for the back catalog.
Disney should die. Apple Corps should buy EMI and be done with it.
@yep
apple should buy emi and disney