Regulatory agencies allow Sony BMG merger to proceed
In early August competition agencies from the United States, Canada, the European Union and Australia finalised investigations into the proposed joint venture between Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann AG (BMG), removing all regulatory hurdles for the merger to proceed.
The proposed merger forms part of a global joint venture that combines the recorded music businesses of Sony and BMG. The merger does not include the companies’ CD manufacturing, CD distribution or music publishing arms.
The US Federal Trade Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau, the European Commission and the ACCC each investigated the proposed acquisition and individually determined that it was unlikely to raise competition concerns in the wholesale recorded music or online music markets. The agencies also concluded that there was no evidence of past collusion or reasons to suspect that any future coordinated conduct between the remaining market players would occur.
The merged entity, to be called Sony BMG, will be the world’s second largest music company behind Universal Music Group.
