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Bronfman departs Warner board
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 15 May 2013
Confirming that the Edgar Bronfman Jr era at Warner Music is now long gone, the former CEO of the mini-major, who led the consortium that bought the music firm from Time Warner in 2004, has left the company’s board.
Bronfman quickly stepped back from having an active role in the running of Warner after its acquisition by Access Industries, though stuck around in the boardroom, mainly to spearhead the company’s opposition to Universal Music’s acquisition of the EMI record company.
It’s thought he also played a significant role in Warner’s subsequent purchase of the Parlophone Label Group – the EMI division that Universal was forced to sell by competition regulators – and it’s possible that it is the near completion of that deal that had resulted in him stepping away from the company at this time.
Current Warner CEO Stephen Cooper said of Bronfman during an earnings call yesterday: “His contributions to this company and the music industry as a whole have been enormous. Warner Music Group would not be the dynamic, pioneering force we are today without his tireless commitment to the company, its employees and its artists”.
Elsewhere in that earnings call, Cooper revealed that Warner saw revenues rise by 8% year on year in the quarter to 31 Jan to $675 million, while operating income was up 159% to $57 million and net income moved into profit, to $2 million, from a loss in the same quarter a year earlier.
