BMG’s acquisition of the EMI publishing catalogues Sony/ATV was forced to sell has been approved by European regulators.
As previously reported, when a Sony-led consortium acquired the EMI music publishing business last year, it was forced to sell off a number of European song catalogues by European competition regulators. The sell-offs were nothing like those forced onto Universal when it bought the EMI record company, but included the Virgin and Famous UK publishing archives.
Confirmation that BMG would buy those catalogues came just before Christmas, though that deal has only just got the nod from the European Commission. The music rights firm also acquired the sound recordings catalogue of the original Mute label as part of Universal’s EMI asset sell-off, that deal getting the Euro-nod earlier this month.