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May 23, 2005 ../ Wall Street Cold To Warner IPOThe Warner Music Group (WMG) had its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 11th selling 22 percent of the company to the public and netting $556 million dollars. This is almost 50 percent less then the owners led by Edgar Bronfman had hoped to score prior to the IPO.Bronfman and his cronies have been trimming the fat on Warner and putting as much lipstick on the pig as possible since they bought the flailing record label just over a year ago. They cut over 1000 jobs and dumped 30 percent of the artist roster, but that wasn't enough to persuade Wall Street analysts that the company was a good buy. Adding to their woes was the fact that marquee act, Linkin Park, publicly demanded to be released from their contract due to neglect. Their main contention was the reduced roster left little resources to give the band the proper attention it needs to reach its fan base. Label representatives countered that it was just a lame effort to renegotiate their contract. Whatever the case, the squabbling didn't help the IPO which debuted at $17 dollars and has fluctuated between $15 and $16 dollars since. There was some better news on the earning front. In the last quarter Warner reported a narrower loss of $18 million as opposed to $45 million from the same period last year. Digital music sales were up significantly from $25 million in the prior quarter to $35 million. The Future: Just a few weeks ago Bronfman and his golfing buddies were patting each other on the back at the windfall they were anticipating. The monies that they were going to be lining their coffers with never materialized when analysts saw right through their fog-and-mirrors magic show. Now that the Jedi Mind Trick didn't pan out, they actually may have to do some real work to get WMG into the black. But the real question is, do they have the patience and the smarts to do it?.
Copyright © 2005 Futuremusic® All Rights Reserved. |
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 As the name correctly implies, Experiments In Sound, is Futuremusic's latest endeavor for pushing electronic music technology to the very edge of what's possible. Experiments In Sound grew out of Futuremusic's avant-garde events in New York City that featured DJ's taking mixing and live sound reinforcement to a whole new level with the very latest gear and software. Now Experiments In Sound has become The Ultimate Mix Contest...
After the tremendous success of our groundbreaking The Next Big Thing DJ Contest, Futuremusic has decided to once again create a new paradigm...
Futuremusic wants to thank everyone who participated in The Next Big Thing 2004. John Digweed, Beatport, Alienware, M-Audio, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, PVDJ, PK Graphics, Ableton, The DubHouse, Propellerheads, Technics, FreeFloat, The Church, PCDJ and every DJ who entered this year's event thank you. From the sheer number of quality mixes, we can tell you that dance music is thriving in the United States. The amount of outstanding talent and creativity really blew us away, and every DJ who's putting their heart, mind and soul behind the music is a winner. John Digweed has made his decision and the winner is... Think you got skills?? Then start practicing! The Next Big Thing 2005 will kick off at the end of the summer!!
News Archives
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