Major Labels

Sony BMG Refile For EU Merger OK

Sony and Bertelsmann have refiled for EU
regulators to approve a 2004 deal the combined the music
companies, the
European Commission said Thursday. Regulators are
re-examining the deal they cleaSonybmg_49red in July 2004 after an EU court negated the approval citing "manifest errors"
in how the EU had determined that combining the companies wouldn’t restrict customer choice.

For now its business as usual at Sony BMG.  But even the hint of de-merger has cooled talks between EMI and WMG and has delayed the Universal BMG publishing merger. (more)

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