Music News Bulletin - 06/08/08

Why is Bertelsmann selling, and Sony buying? August 5, 2008
"Tuesday's news confirmed what reports speculated since March. Sony Corp. is acquiring the 50% stake in its Sony BMG joint venture with Bertelsmann AG it didn't own for $1.2 billion. In March, Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski hired Morgan Stanley to conduct a global strategic review of the German media giant after poor earnings in 2007, which it blamed on its Direct Group book club activities (sold to Phoenix's Najafi Cos.) and settlement costs related to now-legitimate file-sharing site Napster. It also sold its BMG Music Publishing division for $2.1 billion to Vivendi SA." [TheDeal]

Sony pays $1.2bn to buy out Bertelsmann from Sony BMG August 6th, 2008
"After protracted negotiations, Sony is now the full owner of Sony BMG, having paid former partner Bertelsmann Media Group $1.2 billion to buy out its 50% stake. The company will be renamed as Sony Music Entertainment, and will sit within Sony’s North American division." [MusicAlly]

Sony Takes It All August 06, 2008
"There's not much surprise - although their corporate pages don't mention it anywhere - that Sony has bought out Bertelsmann's stake in Sony BMG.

Well, no surprise that it's happened - it's been expected all week - but you'd have to wonder why Sony is so excited. The analysts line is that this is going to make it easier to integrate Sony music product into other Sony businesses; but we can't imagine that the poorly organised Sony corporate structure is going to make it any easier just because there's three letters gone from the letterhead.

You wonder if the real plan is to make it more-or-less impossible for anyone investigating the original merger of Sony and BMG to enforce a divorce, while allowing Bertelsmann to escape a sector in which it has lost heart." [XRRF]

O2 UK launches My Play Music Store With Sony BMG (UK)
"O2 UK, following the footsteps of Vodafone, will now be doing a music play of it’s own with Sony BMG. MyPlay is now added to its O2 Active portal, that offers videos, full-track downloads and realtones in a store. The uniqueness of My Play is that users get to music “simply by clicking on artist microsites as their gateway into the store”." [WirelessFederation]