The Financial Times had an astute piece today on likely purchasers of bank-owned EMI.
Aside from Warner Music, which is itself up for sale, other sniffers and snorters include equity wolves KKK, in partnership with Bertlesmann, and the German-based media magnate Haim Saban.
I am also hearing reports of contacts between Sony and Universal, which would like to break up EMI and share the bits between them.
It is hard to ascertain at this stage which option is the worst for music. None is good.
But the FT helpfully suggests that Impala, the European lobby for independent labels, is preparing to tie up any corporate bid in legal tape that will take years to unravel – a threat that ought to deter all but the most determined of purchasers.
Impala have already crashed one Sony expansion bid. More power to their elbow.
(Apparently one of the photographic models below is an impala)
AMaria Schneider, star of Last Tango in Paris and much else, has died, aged 58.
She hated the director, Bertolucci, for pushing her to extremes but her role will stick in the memory long after the immaterial Last Tango plot has faded.
Jonathan Mills has been renewed as director of the Edinburgh Festival until 2014.
Mills has been in charge since 2006 without giving much impression that he was. In charge.
A festival that was once central to the arts calendar has become peripheral, outshouted by its own fringe and off limits for world leaders in high performance.
Not all of this is Mills’ fault. Budgets have been miserly and political interest low.
Still, a younger, sharper contender might have kicked some life into the old girl of the north. The prospect of having Mills in command until mid-decade will thrill no-one outside his immediate family.
Jonathan Mills has been renewed as director of the Edinburgh Festival until 2014.
Mills has been in charge since 2006 without giving much impression that he was. In charge.
A festival that was once central to the arts calendar has become peripheral, outshouted by its own fringe and off limits for world leaders in high performance.
Not all of this is Mills’ fault. Budgets have been miserly and political interest low.
Still, a younger, sharper contender might have kicked some life into the old girl of the north. The prospect of having Mills in command until mid-decade will thrill no-one outside his immediate family.
