Sony (SNE) became the largest music-publishing company in the world on Friday, after the FTC approved its acquisition of EMI Music Publishing for $2.2 billion. Sony closed up 3.8% following the news.
Background
EMI sold to Sony following complications involving a loan default. Citigroup (CITI) had became heavily involved in the sale. During the fall of 2011, the bank started shopping parts of EMI around.
Sony got the music-publishing side of EMI, which comes with over 2 million copyrights, including The Beatles, Motown classics, Jay-Z, Adele, and Arcade Fire.
One More Piece
Universal Music (owned by Vivendi VIV.FR) has a plan to buy EMI’s recorded music catalog from Citi, for $1.9 billion. The deal is currently under review by anti-trust panels in Europe and the US. If the deal goes through it will likely happen sometime in 2013.
If legislators allow the second deal with Universal to go through, the music industry will be consolidated into three giant companies; Sony, Universal, and Time Warner.
Business Section: Investing Ideas
Now that Sony is the largest music-publisher around, how do you think that impacts their plans for long-term growth? Stay tuned in to the music business to see if the Universal-EMI deal for the music catalog is made official in the months to come.
Use the Compar-O-Matic to see how the two NYSE music moguls compare by quarterly sales:
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