EMI Trying To Spin Off It's Parts

As noted in a number of previous posts, EMI Records has been in pretty tough straights since it was purchased by investment fund Terra Firma a couple of years ago. The reason was the TF played fast and loose with Citibank's money, who put up most of the funds for the sale.

Now Citi wants its money and TF doesn't have it, so EMI has been in a slow death spiral. It can't pay it's bills and it can't get new artists or keep old ones since they have no money for support. What can they do? Sell off parts of the company, of course.

EMI recently tried to sell it lucrative publishing arm, but the sale was stopped by Citi. In the end, it will eventually happen anyway (it's publishing an catalog are the only things worth anything these days) as this once giant of industry dies a slow and unbecoming death.

But one thing it can sell is the revered Abbey Road Studios, according to an article in the Financial Times. The studio was purchased in 1929 for about $160,000 but reportedly will bring in tens of millions of dollars, since the brand name is worth far more than either the studio or real estate. That will hardly put a dent in the more than 5.5 billion dollars still owed to Citi, but the studio is bound to prosper more away from EMI than within it. If you're not much into music history, Abbey Road is where some of the biggest selling records of all time were made, including most of The Beatles recorded output, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and many many more.

So if really want to buy a studio, take a tour of Abbey Road.



If you read my Big Picture blog, sorry for the cross-post, but I thought the topic fit for both.