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Blavatnik favourite to win Warner Music

By | Published on Friday 6 May 2011

Warner Music

So everyone – including Billboard, the Financial Times, the New York Times’ DealBook website, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, my mum, Dirk who works in the shop downstairs and some dude I met on the DLR this morning – seems convinced that Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik will own Warner Music by the end of the month. And that’s what our insider sources are saying too, so we’re in no position to shirk the rumour bangwagon.

As previously reported, it is expected Warner’s board will decide today who to sell the US-based music major to, with three maybe four contenders still in the running. But Blavatnik and his Access Industries company, favourites all along, seem to have most support around the table of decision makers. He’s expected to pay just over three billion dollars to buy the company.

Blavatnik, an existing minority shareholder in Warner Music and a former board member of the company, seemingly has one very important ally in the race to buy the firm, its CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr, who led the consortium who bought the Warner music business from Time Warner back in 2004 and who is still a sizable shareholder in the company.

He has been weirdly quiet about the whole sale process since it began earlier this year, though it’s thought he’s been a Blavatnik supporter from the word go, very possibly because the Russian plans to keep Warner together as one company with a certain Bronfman Jr as top executive.

And not only that. If and when Blavatnik takes control of Warner Music it is likely that the group’s finances will be restructured leaving the balance sheet looking much more healthy. There might also be the funds available to, I don’t know, fund an acquisition of EMI, resulting in the Edgar-led combined EMI/Warner business that Bronfman Jr has been trying to engineer for years now.

So, look out for some resolution on the ‘Warner up for sale’ story later today, then join us all by focusing on and speculating wildly about the upcoming EMI sale. Good times.

UPDATE 3pm 6 May 2011: The New York Times reports that Warner Music has been sold to Access Industrries for $3.3 billion. Read the NYT report here.

UPDATE 3.45pm 6 May 2011: Warner Music Group has confirmed that it has been sold to Access Industries. Full CMU report in Monday’s CMU Daily, in the meantime, read WMG’s statement here.



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