Oldest Record Label - EMI Is Dead

Autor

Beitrag

Amp_Nut
Inventar

#1 erstellt: 07. Jun 2007, 13:39

This week began with Black Monday for EMI.

The company has gone bust and is to be canabalised to pay its creditors ...

A report is available at :

http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/070524-NL-EMI.html

A 1st para quote of the report:

Like the final track on Sergeant Pepper, like the Beatles themselves, the end for EMI came with a sob and a sigh. At tea-time on Monday, the world’s oldest record company declared losses of £264 million and no hope of recovery. A sale was announced to Terra Firma, an equity firm which will strip the ship for early resale, probably to Hollywood rival, Warner. A century of record history and the heart of British music was tossed onto the auction block with no regard for public sentiment or the devastating cultural consequences that attend the destruction of tradition.

The sale price itself tells a large part of the sorry story - £2.4 billion is exactly half what EMI was worth seven years ago, when it sought an equal merger with Warner. Since then, CD sales have crashed – down 20 percent in the US in the first half of 2006 – and a succession of expensive signings, both artistic and executive, have ended in record payoffs. Maria Carey was sacked for £18 million after miserable sales, and the bosses who fired her were themselves chopped at Christmas. Eric Nicoli, the present chairman, will not depart unremunerated.

To survive in what Nicoli called ‘challenging’ conditions, a company needs luck and EMI’s had run out. Robbie Williams never came close to justifying his £80 million deal ...

ani
Stammgast

#2 erstellt: 07. Jun 2007, 16:23

Hi Ampnut,
This is sad news, hope some one will take care of the valuable archives.

Kamal
Stammgast

#3 erstellt: 07. Jun 2007, 19:26

Thankfully, our HMV, now SAREGAMA, appears to be doing fine-they have a virtual treasure trove in their archives, the loss of which would be devastating.
I hope the archives of EMI pass into safe, music loving hands.

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