{"id":1101,"date":"2011-11-10T17:40:24","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T17:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/11\/10\/impala-raises-red-flag-on-universal-and-sony-bids-for-emi\/"},"modified":"2011-11-10T17:40:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T17:40:24","slug":"impala-raises-red-flag-on-universal-and-sony-bids-for-emi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2011\/11\/10\/impala-raises-red-flag-on-universal-and-sony-bids-for-emi\/","title":{"rendered":"IMPALA Raises Red Flag On Universal And Sony Bids For EMI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"normal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-1006\" src=\"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/emi_logo-300x145-copy.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"160\" height=\"77\" \/><br \/>IMPALA, the European independent music companies&#8217; body  confirmed today that it would oppose any attempt by the Universal and Sony  duopoly to buy EMI.   <!--more-->  This follows reports over the weekend that Universal might  be back in the race to buy EMI. Sony is understood to remain one of the bidders  on the publishing side. Independent companies believe reinforcing the duopoly  would be the worst possible outcome of the EMI negotiations &#8211; for music, those  who make it and those who want to access it. <\/p>\n<p>The organisation has  requested the EC to investigate all possible options to intervene. Indeed the EC  has already highlighted the dangers of Universal&#8217;s power. The concerns cover not  only music but also the vital online and mobile market, despite the fact that  certain players there are much larger. In its UniversalBMG merger decision, the  EC said this is because Universal is an indispensable trading partner, noting it  controls more than half the world&#8217;s music in publishing and recording. The EC  and the European courts also raised concerns about Sony&#8217;s market power in the  infamous SonyBMG cases. More recently IMPALA asked the EC to look into  Universal&#8217;s moves in the live sector via its tie-up with Live Nation.  <\/p>\n<p>Even if Universal or Sony attempts to construct a deal for EMI with a  third party or with divestments, it would still increase their market power in  the opinion of IMPALA. IMPALA believes that the regulators would not be  convinced by such an approach and points out that, even if they did, it could  end up in the courts. The independents consider that the buyer would still have  to sell at the end of the day at huge cost. <\/p>\n<p>As far as Warner&#8217;s bid is  concerned, IMPALA&#8217;s position is that it could help balance the duopoly but would  still need substantial remedies as it would increase the competitive gap for the  independents. IMPALA believes a solution should be possible because of the  precedent from 2007 when Warner already recognised the importance of the  independent sector and demonstrated its willingness to find far-reaching  remedies. <\/p>\n<p>Helen Smith, Executive Chair, IMPALA: &#8220;We have always said our  position is no mergers without remedies and we know from 2007 that it is  possible to find a solution which is far-reaching enough. Our problem with  Universal, however, is that we believe it is simply too big already to be  allowed to gain more power and we have the same concerns over Sony buying EMI  publishing. Making such a duopoly more powerful goes completely against the  basic principles of competition in cultural markets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Source: IMPALA<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IMPALA, the European independent music companies&#8217; body confirmed today that it would oppose any attempt&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}