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Business News Labels & Publishers
Warner board turned down higher bid to sell to Blavatnik
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 23 May 2011
According to a statement filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission, seventeen parties expressed an interest in buying Warner Music when its current owners put it up for sale earlier this year, with ten making formal bids.
Four parties were still in the running until the final few days of bidding, with successful bidder, existing shareholder Access Industries, controlled by Len Blavatnik, offering more per share than both Platinum Equity and the Gores Group, despite both those bidders increasing their offers at the last minute.
A consortium involving Sony Music actually outbid Blavatnik – he bid $8.25 a share while the Sony/Guggenheim Partners/MacAndrews & Forbes consortium went in with a final offer of $8.50.
However, that offer would have involved splitting up the Warner company, with Sony getting publishing and MacAndrews & Forbes the record companies, which was something the Warner board, and especially top man Edgar Bronfman Jr, did not want to happen. There was also the issue that any acquisition involving Sony might fall foul of competition regulation.
