Citibank takes over EMI

[GA Russell]

EMI (that's Capitol Records to most of us) was taken over today by Citibank, which not long ago received a huge amount of US taxpayer money in a bank bailout. EMI's debt to Citibank was from the recent leveraged buyout, which didn't work out because the price paid turned out to be too high.

Warner Music (that's Atlantic Records to most of us) has been attempting to purchase EMI recently, so maybe they will be able to obtain it from Citibank.

Of course, Citi could break up the company and sell to the various competitors. In music's current climate, I doubt that private investors would be interested. But I imagine that there will always be people interested if the price is low enough.

I am interested not only because I enjoy listening to music (jazz, mostly), but also because I figure that the publishing industry is only a few years behind the music industry.