Universal Music to acquire BMG for $2.1 million

06 September 2006

Mumbai: Vivendi's Universal Music is acquiring BMG Music Publishing, a group company of German media giant Bertelsmann AG, for $2.1 billion (€1.63 billion). The acquisition would catapult Universal, the No. 1 seller of recorded music, to top slot in music publishing, too.

Vivendi, the French media and telecom group, topped offers from six other bidders for BMG Music Publishing. Other bidders included Warner Music Group and a team that included media conglomerate Viacom Inc. and private equity firm Apollo.

Bertelsmann would pay Vivendi $60 million to settle litigation related to financing it once provided to file-sharing service Napster.

Bertelsmann, is selling its music publishing arm to help fund a 4.5 billion euro buy-back of a minority stake in the company and expects the deal to increase its net income by about a billion euros.

BMG owns the rights to thousands of songs, including ones by Christina Aguilera, Barry Manilow and Coldplay.

Universal Music had been a frontrunner in the auction since it was tipped Bertelsmann would sell BMG earlier this year.