According to Reuters, EMI has said it has had a takeover proposal knocked back by Warner Music. As previously reported again and again and again, rumours remain in both the music business and investment circles about the possibility of a merger between the two smaller major record companies - a merger required, some say, to enable either company to compete with Universal Music and SonyBMG.
Those rumours became more prevalent a couple of weeks back, most possibly as news that EMI was about to make an offer to Warner Music leaked out of the boardroom. EMI reports that in the end it offered $28.50 per Warner Music share, but Edgar Bronfman Jnr and the other senior equity players at the US based major declined on the London record company's offer.
However EMI says that it still thinks a Warner EMI merger or, rather, an EMI takeover of Warner Music, is still a possibility - mainly based on the continuing support for such a move in the City. Bronfman Jnr himself is said to have been considering some kind of merger with EMI of late, and it is much more likely that he disapproved of the specifics of the latest EMI proposal, rather than the actual concept of merging with, or even selling out to, EMI.