Petteri Pyyny
10 Nov 2000 19:19
In Friday, Bertelsmann Music Group and EMI announced that they're in talks of possible merger. This comes after EMI has called off its postponed merger with giant AOL-TimeWarner after the plan faced possible antitrust issues from European Union.
"BMG and EMI would be an odd combination," said Joe Smith, a former record executive who has worked with both EMI and Warner. "They're mirror images of each other. They both have strong international divisions and their own distribution. It's hard to see how they complement one another, other than to just make BMG bigger."
Both companies are members of so-called "big five" team, a bunch of record companies who basically share world's music markets and are the leading power behind organizations such as RIAA.