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Will Bronfman be side-lined at nu-Warner?

By | Published on Monday 18 July 2011

Warner Music

Hits Daily Double in the US is claiming that Warner Music’s new owner, Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, is likely to promote Lyor Cohen. Currently CEO of Warner’s North American operations, Cohen could take over from Edgar Bronfman Jr as overall CEO for the music company.

Which is interesting, because what does that mean for Bronfman Jr? Well, HDD reckons he will give up his day to day duties running Warner to focus 100% on the major’s expected bid to buy EMI, and any regulatory challenges a Warner EMI merger would throw up, assuming current EMI owners Citigroup would consider selling to Access Industries.

That would make sense, as it’s no secret that Bronfman Jr has long wished to follow his 1990s mega-merger of the Universal and Polygram record companies by bringing together EMI and Warner. But what would then happen to Bronfman once any EMI merger was completed or, more importantly, if Warner’s attempts to buy its British rival failed?

Well, that’s the doubly interesting bit, because HDD’s sources reckon Bronfman will be ultimately side-lined, which is surprising given the much reported (including here) rumour that it was Warner’s current CEO and former significant shareholder that pushed for Blavatnik to get ownership in the first place. He supposedly supported the Russian’s bid to buy Warner outright because it would revitalise the major’s balance sheet and enable him to bid for EMI, and then run a combined Warner EMI.

But, say HDD’s sources, that rumour wasn’t true. It was one of Warner’s other big shareholders, Thomas H Lee Partners, which pushed Blavatnik’s takeover through, giddy at the thought of securing such big sums for their stake in an industry everyone had written off eighteen months ago, and with no real thought or concern for Bronfman’s future.

We’re not saying anything, but as speculation goes, this is the most interesting rumour at the moment.



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