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Bertelsmann private equity deal gets EC approval
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 10 September 2009
Bertelsmann has got regulatory approval for its previously reported JV with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co which is interesting, mainly because I didn’t realise (or had possibly forgotten) they needed EC approval.
As previously reported, KKR recently bought into Bertelsmann’s rather interesting new music venture, BMG Rights Management. This is the company the German media conglom set up after selling its half of SonyBMG to Sony Music and having previously sold its music publishing firm to Universal. It’s interesting because it works more like a music publisher than a record company, but manages and exploits recording as well as publishing music rights.
KKR have committed to invest 250 million euros into the venture, mainly to allow catalogue acquisition over several years. The deal led to speculation BMG was interested in buying EMI’s publishing interests, though that seems rather unlikely, partly for mathematical reasons, and partly because EMI Music Publishing is not currently for sale.
Anyway, it seems the KKR/Bertelsmann joint venture needed approval from the European Commission’s competition officials, and the news is that they’ve got it. A spokesman for the EC told reporters: “The Commission found that the proposed concentration would not give rise to any competition concerns, given the very small market share of the joint venture in music publishing and recorded music”.
