Madonna and her business partners have sold their majority stake in Maverick Records to their joint venture partners Warner Music. The deal brings to an end the previously reported legal dispute between the major and Madonna and her partners Guy Oseary and Ronnoe Dashey.
As previously reported, the Maverick owners started legal action against Warner Music and its former parent company Time Warner earlier this year claiming the major had breached its contract with the imprint label. Warner promptly countersued, as you do. The details of the buy out are not known, but Maverick's lawyer Bert Fields confirmed it brought to an end the legal dispute, telling reporters: "It was an effective way of settling the lawsuit. It's clean and equitable".
Needless to say, news of the label sale further fuelled all that speculation that Madonna is about to end her career long recording relationship with Warner, original speculation of which followed all those rumours she was in negotiations with Live Nation regarding a combined recording, touring and merchandising deal.
But Fields said on Friday that the label sale "doesn't have anything to do with her record contract". As previously reported, a spokeswoman for Madonna herself has already commented on the rumours, saying that while she was considering new opportunities for the future, she still has two more albums to make for Warner: "Madonna has a new CD coming out on Warner Brothers Records at the end of this year and early next year. She also has a greatest hits package on Warner. After that she is a free agent and I believe her managers are in talks with Warner Brothers as well as Live Nation regarding her future as a recording and touring artist".