SCHMIDT-HOLZ AIMS FOR A JANUARY CLOSING OF EMI DEAL

Newly named BMG Chief Executive Rolf Schmidt-Holz told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung that Bertelsmann's music unit aimed to reach a merger agreement with EMI by the end of the month.

"It is neither useful for BMG nor for EMI when the negotiations are going on for too long," said Schmidt-Holz, whose name could garner as much as 97 points if it were admissible in a Scrabble game. The BMG chief did admit it was too early to say what either company would have to sell in order to receive regulatory approval for the merger.

According to the story from Bloomberg, if the BMG-EMI merger goes through, the combined company would control roughly 34% of the U.S. market, making it a formidable rival to Warner Music and the recently merged Vivendi Universal.