Death Row Sold For $18 Million

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After several tumultuous years of failed bids and aborted takeovers, notorious rap music label DEATH ROW was plucked off the auction block once more, this time by a CANADIAN entertainment company that offered $18 million, writes TODAY's LOS ANGELES TIMES.

TORONTO-based WIDEAWAKE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP submitted the winning bid to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in LOS ANGELES against competitors WARNER MUSIC GROUP and CONQUEST MEDIA GROUP. It's a song compared with the $25 million that heavyweights WARNER and KOCH RECORDS had offered in prior cycles of the DEATH ROW saga.

BEVERLY HILLS-based CONQUEST, which had filed an initial bid of $10 million, was excluded as a bidder early in THURSDAY's auction because it had failed to submit a complete deposit to the trustees by the DECEMBER 8th deadline.

"This isn't a CHRISTMAS shopping expedition," Judge VINCENT P. ZURZOLO chided the company. "This is a significant transaction."

Some creditors emerged from the auction disgruntled, saying that the low price meant they would receive little or none of the money they were owed by DEATH ROW, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2006. The label was originally owned by music mogul MARION "SUGE" KNIGHT.

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