Are Warner Music Group and EMI, which have been circling each other for nearly a decade, finally ready to consummate their relationship?
That’s the obvious question in light of news that both Terra Firma, the private equity group that bought EMI in 2007, and Citigroup, which funded most of that transaction, have written down most of their investments in the music company.
BusinessWeek employees are waiting to hear if they’ll have jobs once Bloomberg takes over the publication, and I’m told that staffers expect to hear their fate shortly after Thanksgiving. That has to be unnerving, but I can at least offer a little bit of comfort in the worst-case scenario employees would be facing had they been purchased by private equity firm ZelnickMedia. The short version: Almost everybody gets fired.
After a couple of miserable quarters, NBC Universal finally has some good news to announce: Boosted by a one-time gain, earnings actually increased in Q3, even though the entertainment conglomerate’s revenue kept dropping. Perhaps those numbers will cheer Comcast investors, who have been beating up the cable company ever since news of its talks to buy NBCU surfaced last month.
There are very good odds that there are going to be some very big deals happening in the media world in the next year or so. So this move makes a lot of sense: Former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons is joining up with Providence Equity Partners, the private equity firm with a hankering for media investments.
You can now formally call off eBay’s efforts to spin off Skype–not that many people took them seriously to begin with. The company has sold off 65 percent of its internet telephony business to a consortium of private investors for $1.9 billion. The deal puts Skype’s overall value at $2.75 billion, a bit more than the $2.6 billion eBay paid for the company in 2005.
Earlier this year, a top BusinessWeek editor assured me that McGraw-Hill wouldn’t part with the publication–because even if it was losing money it was still a trophy asset for the publisher. But perhaps my source didn’t comprehend how much money his employer was actually losing.
Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, who has run one of the Web’s biggest finance sites for the last nine years, is leaving the company at the end of the summer. No replacement has been named. Spanfeller’s departure comes amid a flurry of bad news for finance publications.
Web radio darling Pandora has good news for its users: We’re saved! And a slightly different message for its heaviest users: Pay up. And perhaps a third message for potential investors: Want to write us a check?
Stressed about making tomorrow morning’s deadline to submit a bid for the Boston Globe? No worries! The New York Times, which is selling the paper it bought in 1993, is telling prospective buyers to take their time. Goldman Sachs, which is running the auction for the Times, had originally told bidders to submit their offer by July 8. But as of last night, that deadline has been pushed back, with no new deadline to replace it.
A lot of people couldn’t understand why Guy Hands, the private equity guy who bought EMI in the summer of 2007, was willing to pay so much for the music company. Now he says he agrees with them–his Terra Firma buyout firm has written off half the $3.2 billion he paid for the company. He may have to write off more before he’s done.
How could the company behind the Beatles and other music legends lose $1.2 billion in 12 months?
We’ll be happy to tell you, says the people who own that company in a 101-page report.
(It’s the financial stylings of EMI Music’s owners: The United Kingdom’s Terra Firma private equity group, which bought the company for some $5 billion in the summer of 2007.)
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
