May 21, 2007

The Warner and EMI dance

I've reported here before that Warner is again wanting to buy EMI, after EMI's decision to sell DRM-free tracks on iTunes. After that, I told you that after all EMI could be bought and not by Warner, but by a set of private equity firms interested in the deal. EMI gave them until May 23 to present their offers, and as the date is getting closer, the tension grows... The big news today is that Warner may offer extra $240m for EMI thanks to the confidence that the European competition regulators.

Of course I hope that this merge does not happen, but worse than that is that, all of the sudden, it seems that everything points out for an European aprooval of this merge, where previously everything pointed to the other side. I have no clue on what changed, and, unless someone got his bank account more joyful to change his oppinion, I just don't get why could a Warner/EMI merge be considered as possibly not fall into anti-trust. Let me just remind you that Warner recognized that the new impulse to buy EMI came out of their latest decisions (like selling DRM-free music) that are taking the music industry to a path that they don't like. Isn't buying some company to change the complete industry to a deliberate path exactly what anti-trust measures try to prevent?

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