Bertelsmann is set to take full control of music rights management company BMG by acquiring the shares held by co-owner Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR).<\/p>\n
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is scheduled to close during the first half of this year, with details kept confidential.<\/p>\n
BMG administers the rights to more than one million songs, including works by such artists as Bruno Mars, Duran Duran, Gossip, Johnny Cash, and Will.i.am. It also represents the master rights (composition and recording) of artists who include Brian Ferry, Nena and Anastacia.<\/span><\/p>\n Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Thomas Rabe said: \u201cThis is a great day for Bertelsmann: We are bringing the music home to our group. A few years after our exit from the traditional music business, in association with KKR, we have succeeded in building the world\u2019s fourth-largest music rights management business.\u201d<\/p>\n Rabe said of KKR: \u201cOur partnership made it possible for BMG to take advantage of consolidation opportunities and to rapidly advance the organic expansion of the business. I thank them for an excellent collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n He explained. \u201cWe are happy to have BMG as our own company again. CEO Hartwig Masuch and his team deserve our thanks for the passion and know how they brought to developing a small creative nucleus into a powerhouse that provides the right answers to the challenges of the music industry in this digital age.\u201d<\/p>\n Johannes Huth, Head of KKR Europe, said: \u201cOur innovative partnership with Bertelsmann, which combined the professional expertise of a global media company with the financial strength, network and business-building expertise of KKR, was a complete success. We explored new business approaches with Bertelsmann; BMG did pioneering work in the music rights market with its digital, service-focused business approach. The model of a \u2018growth and build\u2019 partnership between a corporate group and KKR is bound to be seen more often in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas Hesse, who as President, Corporate Development and New Businesses, at Bertelsmann is responsible for BMG, added: \u201cThe BMG success story is impressive. The company works with a lean organization, a management with an excellent network, and a deep understanding of the needs of artists, songwriters and copyright holders in the digital age. We will operate this business long-term to actively expand it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hartwig Masuch, CEO of BMG, said: \u201cFor BMG, this is a return home. Being a subsidiary of one of the world\u2019s leading media companies opens up more fields of cooperation for us and our customers in the future, and we look forward to many new, long-term development opportunities. The worldwide increase in the use of music, and the emergence of new digital business models offer a variety of opportunities that we will actively explore. We are grateful to KKR for always sharing our vision of an alternative, service-oriented company in the music rights market, and for actively supporting us with their team these past three and a half years. Without KKR, this development would not have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Philipp Freise, Head of KKR\u2019s European media business, added, \u201cBMG has delivered an outstanding performance since it was founded, and has exceeded our original expectations. Together with Bertelsmann, we systematically supported BMG\u2019s international expansion. As we had hoped, today, BMG is one of the world\u2019s leading music rights management companies and very well positioned to continue writing its success story under the proven leadership of Bertelsmann.\u201d<\/p>\n BMG will be fully consolidated within Bertelsmann after antitrust clearance has been received. Hartwig Masuch will remain CEO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cBMG has delivered an outstanding performance since it was founded, and has exceeded our original expectations”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[223,188,222,100,182],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bertlesmann","tag-bmg","tag-kkr","tag-labels","tag-publishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}