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Terra Firma to Buy EMI

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 9:05 AM - by

The British music label EMI - the same company that agreed to sell copy protection-free songs through the iTunes Store - has reached a buy out deal with the private equity group Terra Firma. The company will buy EMI for £2.4 billion (about US$4.73 billion), and will likely leave EMI's management team intact, according to Reuters.

The deal with Terra Firma means that EMI is effectively protected from Warner Music. The competing label was also maneuvering to try and buy EMI - a move that could have potentially altered EMI's plans to sell music online without copy protection schemes in place.

The deal still needs to be approved by shareholders and government regulators. If approved, EMI will most likely be able to continue with business as usual.

EMI is the world's third largest music label and distributes albums from many well known artists and bands including The Beatles. The company has committed to offering its entire music library without copy protection, and DRM-free tracks are scheduled to start appearing on Apple's iTunes Store some time in May.

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BlueDjinn said:

member since 24 Jun 2001 with 708 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 22, 2007 10:55 am

"sometime in May"--

OK, after all the hype & fuss that was made over the original DRM-free iTunes/EMI announcement, does anyone find it strange that they STILL haven't announced the actual availability date of the DRM-free tracks?? There's only 9 days left to go in May--has it been delayed or something? I can't believe that they'd make it a "quiet" launch after making such a big deal about it last month...

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