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And Finally Business News Labels & Publishers
Microsoft’s attempt to buy Sub Pop revealed
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 28 April 2014
Dana Giacchetto, a Wall Street broker who has been involved in numerous high profile deals, has discussed his involvement in the sale of 49% of the Sub Pop record company to Time Warner in 1994. Most interestingly, he revealed that Microsoft was one of the other bidders for the label at the time.
“I can now reveal that Universal was the top bidder, $25 million”, Giacchetto told Billboard. “But it wasn’t the right creative fit. Sony Music bid $5 million. David Geffen bid $8 million – I told him his bid was way too fucking low – and Microsoft bid a paltry $4 million, [which was] frankly insulting. Bill Gates, who at the time considered himself to be ‘the future of entertainment’, couldn’t have been a more dull character. It definitely would have made Microsoft a bit more hip, which in hindsight might have actually made Microsoft a player in entertainment. They’re still not”.
Microsoft refused to comment, but Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt said of Giacchetto: “Dana was a charming charlatan and a persuasive method actor who never deviated from character. He did pull off a brilliant deal with Time Warner, indeed allowing us to keep 51% of the company”.
Of course, with Microsoft refusing to say if it did genuinely bid for Sub Pop, we’ll just have to take Giachetto at his word. And can we really trust him? He says Bill Gates “couldn’t have been a more dull character” in 1994, but look at this 1994 video of him jumping over an office chair:
Who’s dull now, huh?
