Faxon Supports Hands

FAXON'S HANDS STAND: EMI Music ruler Roger Faxon sure talks a lot for someone who claims he doesn’t want to be interviewed in the press. Maybe that’s just when it comes to HITS. In an interview with the U.K. Telegraph, he once again reiterated his belief that EMI Music would best function as a single company, and not split into recorded music and publishing, as most observers feel owner Citigroup will do. "If the businesses were broken apart, I think they would be far weaker than in combination. There may be other answers that other people have in how to gain value at the business, but I don't see them." He also said, he’d welcome back Guy Hands if the Terra Firma boss were to buy back the business, even as his ex-boss publicly accused Faxon of throwing him under the bus in helping Citigroup take the company from him. "Guy believes in the strategy, so I think he would be a fine owner going forward. In my tenure as chief executive, he was nothing but supportive of our strategy and our approach. He saw a huge opportunity in the business and I don't think he was wrong about that. The quantum of the price, he and others said that was far too high. But he did see an opportunity and that was not wrong." (2/21a)