Bertelsmann and Sony Corp. agree to form joint music venture

Описание: (6 Nov 2003) SHOTLIST

1. Wide tilt down of Sony headquarters in New York
2. Close-up sign "SONY" above buildings main entrance
3. Medium shot three women smoking underneath "Sony" sign
4. SOUNDBITE (English) David Kirkpatrick, New York Times Business Reporter
"What's been going on in the music business for the last three years or so could be described as bedlam, misery, disaster, everybody is seeing their sales fall and they're responding by that, all the music companies are responding to that by trying to consolidate. They feel like they have excess capacity, too much of everything really, too many CDs, too many warehouses, too many artists and they're trying to cut down across the board. Universal music, the largest, is so big it couldn't pass regulatory muster with a merger so it's responded by trying to cut it's cd prices but the other four of the big five are involved in a kind of four way grope to pick out merger partners for each other."
5. Wide of Bertelsmann building in Times Square
6. Close-up advertisement for "Christina Aguilera" on BMG building
7. SOUNDBITE (English) David Kirkpatrick, New York Times Business Reporter
"Their announcement today was just a letter of intent, an agreement. They are going to begin talking and it allows them to go ahead and begin negotiations with the regulators as well but it does not guarantee the merger is going to happen, they may not be able to come to terms with each other at the end of the day and they can still walk away."
8. Wide shot Bertelsmann building
9. Close-up BMG Sign on building
10. Close-up BMG flag
11. Medium shot entrance to building

STORYLINE:

Bertelsmann AG and Sony Corp. announced a preliminary plan to merge their music businesses Thursday, setting the stage for a company that would vie for world primacy with Universal Music Group. A merger of Sony Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann's BMG would bring together the world's No. 2 and No. 5 music companies as the industry struggles with losses blamed on music piracy.

The new company, to be called Sony BMG, would be equally owned by Sony and Bertelsmann and run by Andrew Lack, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the chairman and chief executive of BMG, would serve as chairman of the board. Bertelsmann didn't say whether the two companies had agreed on financial terms in their letter of intent or what issues remained to be worked out before a final agreement could be struck.

The deal would put some of music's biggest stars under a common corporate roof. Sony Music Entertainment's labels include Columbia, Epic, and Sony Classical, and it is home to pop artists including Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce Knowles and Celine Dion. Among the stars on BMG's various labels are Dido, the Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Avril Lavigne and the late Elvis Presley.

Other major record companies also are seeking to merge as a way to shore up their strength in the face of declining album sales and rampant file-swapping on the Internet.

EMI Group PLC of Britain is in talks about the possibility of buying Warner Music Group from Time Warner Inc., three years after European regulatory opposition ended their discussions about a possible joint venture.

Sony BMG would have a combined global market share of 25.2 percent, according to the market measurement firm IFPI, just behind the 25.9 percent share held by industry leader Universal Music Group, which is part of the French conglomerate Vivendi Universal.




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