Following the announcement this weekend of the sale of EMI Publishing by CitiGroup to an investment group led by Sony, IMPALA confirmed today that it would oppose the sale, referring to its statements last week, 8th November and 11th November.
IMPALA points out that Brussels has already investigated concentration in the music publishing market, in the UniversalBMG case. This gave a very clear indication of what the maximum size of a major publishing interest should be. With EMI/Sony far exceeding this, IMPALA expects this merger to be rejected outright. IMPALA retains the view that even divestments will not convince the regulators.
Helen Smith, Executive Chair, IMPALA: “Brussels has already determined the maximum size of major music companies and it is difficult to see how arguments about the state of the market could impact that. The basic principles of competition in cultural markets do not tolerate making either Sony or Universal more powerful.”