I get news from a site that caters to those in the radio broadcasting industry, and I got this story in my email this morning:


THE NEW YORK TIMES reports WARNER MUSIC GROUP "has hired the investment bank GOLDMAN SACHS to seek out potential buyers for the company, a process that will play out while WARNER continues to explore buying the beleaguered British music giant EMI. The decision to hire GOLDMAN SACHS came after several suitors, including the buyout firm KOHLBERG KRAVIS ROBERTS, approached WARNER MUSIC's management in recent months about buying the company, according to an executive briefed on the matter who spoke only anonymously."


The report claims WMG decided to enter into a formal sale process, rather than simply accept the offer from KOHLBERG KRAVIS ROBERTS.


THE WALL STREET JOURNAL adds, "The transactions being explored by GOLDMAN might not necessarily result in a sale of the entire WARNER MUSIC GROUP." Insiders say WMG could simply spin off a division, such as WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC.
At the same time, WMG has retained a separate set of GOLDMAN SACHS bankers to focus on a potential acquisition of EMI.


Earlier this month, TERRA FIRMA CEO GUY HANDS told investors that the company could be handed over to CITIGROUP by MARCH (NET NEWS 1/10). THE TIMES report says GOLDMAN has reached out to CITIGROUP regarding EMI.

(article from allaccess.com)

I thought I'd pass this along as this is Disturbed's label... tough times in the neighborhood, even for WMG...

lets hope if they get bought i hope they will change their stubborn old fashioned archaic ways cause even thow it might look as if they are protecting their interests by copyrighting their material but when they shutdown websites and other pages like you tube then they are fighting their customers and giving them self's a bad reputation for being a bunch of assholes so for the future owners a bit of advise when you interfere with those who buy the records by banning shutting down websites your shutting your self in the foot and that's not good business is it now so yea let us support our acts by uploading there videos by making art that's our way of supporting the bands we love and we are not hurting anyone one the material is ours just as much as it is yours so a tip for the future "BACK OFF"

Love Raven
disturbed fan

that's what id send in an email or letter but yea i had to get that out my system cause the amount of you tube pages ive made and had hundreds of video deleted or banned plus i ran a really big popular fansite once its my right to support disturbed as it is anyone else's

haha they finally went bankrupt wooooooooooooo now new managnment and possibly a new attitude

These companies are always merging and buying each other out, so I have to agree with Dawn that it was only a matter of time before WMG announced something like this. Although this article didn't mention it specifically, I wonder if, as part of any sale, they'd be looking to spin off Reprise to either be a stand alone label (again, as it has been part of WB since the early 60's) or to merge it with another company.

A bit of trivia about Reprise: it was started by Frank Sinatra in 1960. That's how Sinatra became known as "The Chairman of the Board." He sold it to Warner Bros. in 1963, and it still distributes collections of Sinatra's recordings.