Will Tanous, who by all accounts has proven invaluable to shepherding UMG to market, had prior experience with an IPO—under very different circumstances.
Tanous was a player in WMG’s going public during the Edgar Bronfman Jr./Thomas H. Lee era. The year was 2005, the business had been in the post-Napster doldrums for several years and iTunes had just opened. The offering put Warner’s market cap at $2.4b. In 2011, after more bleak years, Len Blavatnik shrewdly forked over a tidy $3.3b for the label group. That now looks like a rather keen investment given that WMG’s market cap at present is $23.7b.
STRINGER TOUTS SONY MUSIC TO SHAREHOLDERS
Rob lays out the company strategy (5/26a)
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SUPERSTAR RELEASES
Who's next?
MUSIC BIZ SPECIAL
It's Comic-Con for numbers geeks.
THE BIG CHEESE
Theories of evolution from 30,000 feet.
THE NEXT GIANT DEAL
A&R in overdrive.
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