NY Post: BMG Rights Makes A Bid For EMI

The First Reported Bid

The bids for EMI Music have begun to come in. Last week (NET NEWS 7/22), ALL ACCESS reported that CITIGROUP wanted to fast-track the bidding process and is hoping to close the sale as soon as LABOR DAY. A NEW YORK POST report said the bank wants preliminary bids readied by JULY 28th.

Now THE POST writes "KKR-backed music publishing venture BMG RIGHTS submitted its bid for EMI on FRIDAY," and "WARNER MUSIC GROUP is understood to be presenting its bid sometime this week before the JULY 28th deadline."

In addition to BMG RIGHTS and WMG, other companies expressing interest in EMI include UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP and SONY CORP.

KKR-BERTELSMANN-backed BMG RIGHTS," writes the POST. "It couldn't immediately be determined if other bidders who lined up for WMG's sale earlier this spring -- like RON PERELMAN's MACANDREWS & FORBES, THE GORES GROUP, RON BURKLE's YUCAIPA COS. and PERMIRA -- will return to put in bids for EMI."

"One source familiar with the process," wrote THE POST, "put EMI's value at between $2.3 billion and $2.7 billion, while others say it's comparable with WARNER, which fetched $3.3 billion."

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