{"id":1459,"date":"2012-03-05T17:18:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T17:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/03\/05\/universal-music-is-urgently-selling-650-million-in-assets-to-pay-for-emi\/"},"modified":"2012-03-05T17:18:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T17:18:45","slug":"universal-music-is-urgently-selling-650-million-in-assets-to-pay-for-emi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2012\/03\/05\/universal-music-is-urgently-selling-650-million-in-assets-to-pay-for-emi\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music Is Urgently Selling $650 Million In Assets to Pay for EMI&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-8NbJq8Ncd_4\/TsAgE0bNA6I\/AAAAAAAADf4\/neD8T2ARHEw\/s1600\/universal-music.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"158\" height=\"109\" \/><br \/>Universal Music Group will be forced to sell more than $650 million in &#8216;non-core  assets&#8217; in order to purchase EMI, according to financial disclosures shared by  parent company Vivendi.  That&#8217;s 500 million euros, or nearly half the sale price  of 1.2 billion euros ($1.58 billion), also according to Vivendi.    <!--more-->  &#8220;This project  is expected to generate more than \u00a3100 million per annum in synergies,&#8221; Vivendi  informed investors, with &#8216;project&#8217; referring to the proposed merger.  &#8220;UMG is  committed to sell \u20ac500 million of its non-core assets to partially finance this  transaction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The fire-sale changes the debate over this merger, and  could potentially ease the regulatory approval process.  Because buying a  massive major label is one thing, but selling a massive amount of stuff to do it  is another.  And, according to subsequent comments made by Vivendi SA chief  financial Philippe Capron, the plan is the dump these assets before the decision  is dropped &#8211; ie, over the next few months.  &#8220;We want to get this done by the  time regulators give their verdict on the Universal Music and EMI transaction,&#8221;  Capron told Bloomberg this morning.<\/p>\n<p>The news was closely followed by the  &#8216;sale&#8217; of UMG-owned Fontana Distribution to INgrooves.  Universal owns a very  substantial chunk of INgrooves, which makes this look more like a deal among  friends than a bona fide acquisition.  Still, sale probably helps the cash  situation, and INgrooves now becomes INgrooves Fontana.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the  clock is ticking&#8230; sort of.  The European Commission issued a tentative  deadline of March 23rd, though in reality, these guys take their own damn time.   Which is why Vivendi chief Bernard Levy told investors to expect a decision  during the second-half of this year.  Stateside, the Federal Trade Commission  (FTC) is also taking a look, though the Europeans are typically ten-times  tougher.<\/p>\n<p>The enemies of this merger are growing increasingly vocal.  That  includes &#8211; surprisingly &#8211; Warner Music Group, whose ex-chairman Edgar Bronfman  promised to fight this &#8216;tooth and nail,&#8217; based on lopsided market shares.  Other  noted enemies include indie consortia AIM and IMPALA.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Digital News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Universal Music Group will be forced to sell more than $650 million in &#8216;non-core assets&#8217;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","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=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}