
EMI
British music recording and publishing company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth largest business group and record label conglomerate in the music industry, and was one of the "Big Four" record companies (now the "Big Three"). Its labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records, and Capitol Records, which are now owned by other companies.
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Type | Private |
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Industry | Music |
Predecessor | Columbia Graphophone Company Gramophone Company |
Founded | 31 March 1931; 92 years ago (1931-03-31)[1] |
Defunct | 28 September 2012; 10 years ago (2012-09-28) |
Fate | Broken up: EMI Music Publishing acquired by consortium led by:
Parlophone, Chrysalis Records (UK artists and Ramones catalogue until 2016), EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, 2CD Originals Series and EMI's Belgian, Czech/Slovak, Danish, French, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish operations (including Russian EMI partner SBA/Gala and Chinese EMI partner Gold Typhoon) acquired by: Bulk of recording business acquired by: Mute Records back catalogue and Virgin Music Publishing sold to: Chrysalis British catalogue (except 3 artists and Ramones) sold in 2016 to:
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Successor | EMI Music Publishing Virgin EMI Records EMI Records Nashville Minos EMI Studios 301 |
Headquarters | Westminster, London , England, United Kingdom |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Founding CEO Lenard John Brown Roger Faxon (Former CEO) Ruth Prior (Former CFO) |
Revenue | £1.072 billion (2009) $1.65 billion (2009) |
£163 million (2009) (EMI Music)[5] £135 million (2009) (EMI Music Publishing)[6] | |
Owner |
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Number of employees | 5,500 (2008) |
Subsidiaries | |
Website |
EMI was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but faced financial problems and US$4 billion in debt, leading to its acquisition by Citigroup in February 2011.[7][8] Citigroup's ownership was temporary, as EMI announced in November 2011 that it would sell its music arm to Vivendi's Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion and its publishing business to a Sony/ATV consortium for around $2.2 billion. Other members of the Sony consortium include the estate of Michael Jackson, the Blackstone Group, and the Abu Dhabi–owned Mubadala Development Company. EMI's locations in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada were all disassembled to repay debt, but the primary head office located outside those countries is still functional.[9]
EMI is now owned by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the music publishing division of Sony Music which bought another 70% stake in EMI Music Publishing.[10][11]