7:32 p.m. | Updated Sony and BMG, onetime partners in one of the music world's biggest mergers, are teaming up again on a bid to buy - and then divide between themselves - some of the recorded music assets of EMI, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks between the companies.
The EMI assets are being sold by the Universal Music Group, which last year took over the company for $1.9 billion but is being required by the European Union to dispose of about a third of it to preserve competition.
The EMI labels up for sale include Parlophone, with acts like Coldplay and Gorillaz, along with EMI's extensive classical catalog and other labels and subsidiaries across Europe. Universal is said to be seeking at least $650 million for the divestments, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private.
Sony and BMG - which merged in a joint venture in 2004, then split up four years later when Sony bought out BMG's share - have agreed to submit a bid together in the EMI auction, but the two companies would not form another joint venture. Instead, if they are successful, EMI's divested assets would be split up even further, with Sony taking some and BMG taking others.
Representatives for BMG and Sony declined to comment. The news of the partnership was first reported by The Financial Times.
In its latest incarnation, BMG is known as BMG Rights Management, and is a joint venture of the German media giant Bertelsmann, its original parent, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. BMG Rights has quickly built up a large music publishing empire, with a catalog of more than a mi llion songs, but it has also shown interest in recorded music. Last month it bought the back catalog of the Mute label, another part of the EMI auction, with music by Depeche Mode and Moby.
The auction for EMI's recorded music assets is still in its early stages. Among the parties said to be interested in bidding are the Warner Music Group; Ronald O. Perelman's company, MacAndrews & Forbes; and the team of Simon Fuller, the founder of “American Idol,†and Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records.
Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.
