And to think, I was looking forward to finding out just how SonyBMG would manage to undo their three year old merger. But they won't have too, because the European Commission has, for a second time, given the all clear to proposals by Sony Corp and Bertelsmann to combine their recorded music operations - and with no conditions.
As much previously reported, Sony and Bertelsmann's record label divisions won EU clearance for their merger in 2004 and promptly merged to create Sony BMG Music Entertainment. But then pan-European indie label body IMPALA took the decision to the European courts who said that EC competition commissioners had not investigated the impact of a merger sufficiently in order to give it the go ahead, which meant the Commission had to reinvestigate the whole merger again, even though the merger had, by that time, taken place. It was a ruling with left SonyBMG with the daunting prospect of possibly having to demerge their operations, and which threw fresh doubt on whether a merger of EMI and Warner - something that was being discussed at the time - would get regulator approval.
SonyBMG remained confident its merger would be approved second time round, and they proved to be right. Confirming the merger had been given the go ahead again and commenting on the investigation they had undertaken this time round, EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement: "[Our new investigation] clearly shows that the merger would not raise competition concerns in any of the affected markets. [This time] the Commission was able to evaluate the actual impact of the merger on the market since 2004 and was not limited, as is usually the case, to an analysis of likely effects on the market in the future".
No doubt the indie community will have much to say about the decision, and we'll gather their thoughts for tomorrow's Daily.