Mergers

[thewho rocks <leb905@yahoo.com>]

Interesting note in the paper today for those who follow such things:

EU PROBES MUSIC DEAL

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Citing concerns of customers, competitors, trade
and consumer groups, the European Commission opened a full antitrust
probe Wednesday into the merger of Warner Music, a Time Warner, Inc.
unit and EMI Group PLC.  

In a statement, the commission said it was concerned the merger will
lead to only four firms - Warner/EMI, Seagrams's Universal Music Group,
Bertelsmann Music Group and Sony Music - gaining control of "some 80
percent" of the European market, comprising the 14 EU nations, plus
Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

In music publishing, Time Warner/EMI would control "by far the largest
number of copyrights in the world and would be considerably larger than
the next largest competitors," it added.

"There are strong indications that Time Warne/EMI could become dominant
in the digital delivery of music via the Internet
especially...considering the merger between America Online and Time
Warner."  AOL's proposed acquisition of Time Warner is the subject of a
separate EU antitrust investigation.  An initial ruling is expected
June 19.


LB

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