With so much major label merger talk, city types have been putting price tags on each of the record companies, and it doesn't make for happy reading. Warner's, most likely to go up for sale, will probably be happy with the $3-4 billion valuation. However BMG may have been hoping their $2.5 billion Zomba buy out would have given them a higher overall valuation than $3 billion. Sony would probably have hoped that fifteen years after buying CBS Records for $2 billion they would get more than $3-4 billion for their music operations. Universal, who spent over $10 billion acquiring Polygram in the last major merger, will be very disappointed with albeit conservative estimates of $6 billion as an asking price. But EMI will probably be most disappointed – in 1997 EMI boss Sir Colin Southgate turned down a $10 billion buy out offer – city experts now reckon the company is worth not much more than $1 billion. So check if there's any spare cash down the back of the sofa – now's the time to buy!
Mar 17, 2003
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1 min read
Major label valuations come in low
City estimates put Warner at $3-4 billion, Universal at $6 billion and EMI at around $1 billion, far below earlier valuations.