Sony aims to beef up its music catalog with this $1.9 billion acquisition of EMI Music.
Japanese entertainment giant Sony Corp. announced Tuesday it will acquire a majority stake of EMI Music Publishing. The former already holds the rights to about 2.3 million songs.
The deal, amounting to $1.9 billion, is the company’s first major deal under new CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. He noted that the music industry has enjoyed a “resurgence” recently because of music streaming services like Spotify and Apple.
According to the company, it has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala who holds 60% holding. With this acquisition, Sony now holds an indirect stake of approximately 90% of EMI Music.
“We are thrilled to bring EMI Music Publishing into the Sony family and maintain our number-one position in the music publishing industry”, said Yoshida. “I believe this acquisition will be a particularly significant milestone for our long-term growth,” he adds.
Sony aims to continue increasing its content business, a strategy that its former CEO Kazuo Hirai had started.
“(The acquisition of EMI) is an investment to beef up our content catalog. Once this deal is complete, we will become one of the biggest music publishing firms in the world.”
EMI holds a “comprehensive and diverse collection of copyrights for music and lyrics” from a “wide variety of iconic and popular songwriters”. This includes Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” which continue to make the company money even after decades. Other popular moneymakers from the brand include Kanye West, Drake, Pink, Fetty Wap and Hozier.
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