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Business News Labels & Publishers
Warner bid deadline arrives
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 8 April 2011
The deadline is here for bids to buy some or all of the Warner Music Group. As previously reported, some of those bidding will want the whole company, while others aim to acquire just the publishing or record label divisions.
Bidding for the whole shebang are Ron Burke’s Yucaipa group and the KKR-backed acquisitive music rights firm BMG. Everyone seems to think the former’s bid will be higher, with speculators putting BMG’s bid for the whole Warner group somewhere between $2.8 and $2.9 billion, while it is thought Burke’s bid will be closer to $3 billion.
But they are not the only bidders. Leonard Blavatnik’s Access Industries are another bid contender, while Sony/ATV and Live Nation are expected to submit bids as well. Latest reports in the US media suggest that also bidding are: MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Permira, Platinum Equity, Gores Group, Guggenheim Partners and Promthus. That’s pretty good going for one of the “dinosaurs” of a “dying industry”.
