Zomba Records – the most successful and most poptastic independent label in the world – is now officially part of BMG. The major, who have had a 20% stake in the company for sometime, now have complete owernship after a time consuming take over.
Word is the takeover took some time because Zomba owner Clive Calder insisted BMG buy his 80% of stock at the 1991 price, as promised in a previous agreement. This went in Calder’s favour because the stock value now is less than half what it was in 1991 (BMG shelled out $2.75 billion for stock which analysts reckon is now worth $1.2 billion). Calder stuck fast on the promise and BMG eventually had to comply.
With the deal done Britney Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Groove Armada, R Kelly and many more are now BMG artists.
How much autonomy the Zomba labels will now be given is unclear – the operations of the two main BMG labels RCA and Arista were pretty much merged in the UK during a restructure two years ago.
BMG bosses also have to consider how they integrate the operations of J Records. They last week took complete ownership of the imprint from founder Clive Davies adding a plethora of artists, including Alicia Keys and Rod Stewart, to their rosters. Davies also got a good deal – he gets a top job at group level within BMG, putting him in charge of Arista, the record label who fired him two years ago for being too old!