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Brands & Merch Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
Universal’s Bravado buys rival Epic Rights
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 23 January 2019
Roll up, roll up, get yourself a t-shirt! It’s quite the business, don’t you know. Universal Music has just got its big fat cheque book out in order to expand its merchandise company Bravado by acquiring rival Epic Rights. Yeah, print that on a t-shirt.
As a result of the deal, Bravado will now be in charge of making tees, hoodies, beanies, buttons, bags, cans and other assorted widgets, gizmos and doo-hickeys for artists including Kiss, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Sting, Britney Spears and ZZ Top.
Epic Rights founder Dell Furano – who did marvellous merch things with the likes of Sony and Live Nation before setting up his own business in 2014 – will join Universal’s mighty merch division as part of the transaction, with him and his team continuing to do magnificent merch nonsense for Epic’s existing roster of talent.
“As the industry’s preeminent brand management company we are constantly looking for ways to evolve our company while providing fans around the world with an ever-growing array of products and experiences”, Bravado boss man Mat Vlasic bragged yesterday, while confirming the Epic deal. Then getting to the point, he declared: “I’m excited to work with Dell, a true icon in our industry, and expand the Bravado portfolio”.
For his part, Furano endorsed Vlasic’s bragging, reckoning that Bravado “have taken product development, marketing and global distribution to an entirely new level”. Then also getting to the point, he added: “I’m very proud of all that we’ve achieved at Epic Rights, and look forward to expanding Epic’s roster and artist services in this next chapter”.
