Citigroup has announced that they have acquired 100% of EMI, and swiftly recapitalised the music group to slash its debt from £3.4 billion to £1.2 billion, with £300 million of cash now available for investment.
All this came after the administrator (PricewaterhouseCoopers) was appointed. The administrators promptly announced the sale of EMI to Citigroup.
EMI’s senior management remains in place, with CEO Roger Faxon hailing the news. “The recapitalisation of EMI by Citi is an extremely positive step for the company. It has given us one of the most robust balance sheets in the industry with a modest level of debt and substantial liquidity. With that solid footing, we are confident in our ability to drive our business forward.”
Will Citigroup now split and sell EMI to other music services? Possibly Warner Music?
AOL Europe has acquired leading video advertising network GoViral for $96.7 million. Goviral distributes branded video content for mainstream brands, as well as content producers and advertising agencies.
The initial purchase is for $74.1 million and $22.6 million in a two year earn out.
We’re hearing this deal was lead directly by Kate Burns, SVP, AOL Europe. René Rechtman, CEO, goviral secured $8.82 million Series A funding from European VC Kennet Partners in 2009.
In a statement Burns said: “Video is core to AOL’s consumer programming strategy and goviral has created an incredibly compelling platform that delivers highly measureable and cost effective solutions to publishers and advertisers.”
Google just initiated one of the most exciting acquisition ideas: Trying to buy Twitter with the nice amount of $4 billion dollars, says Yahoo Finance.
Google made earlier an initial offer of $2.5 billion to acquire Twitter, but not only the micro-blogging service refused this offer, but also said that the amount suggested was “insulting”. That’s why Google is apparently analyzing to increase the bid up to $4 billion dollars.
According to the report, an important source related to Twitter said that 3 months ago they’ve received a similar offer of $4 billion dollars from an unknown buyer (Microsoft?) but it was rejected.
What do you think? Can any of these big companies actually buy Twitter?
Twitter could resist these kinds of bids, in the same way Facebook did?
The NY Times published recently a surprising event that took place in Adobe’s offices. A secret CEO’s meeting, Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, where they discussed the possibility about a possible merge and Microsoft taking over Adobe’s company.
Both of these technology monsters share a common enemy: Apple. Microsoft never had the chance to enter the mobile world and Adobe’s is struggling for not be forgotten since Apple decided they were not going to support Flash in their iOS (iPhones and iPads operating systems). And these are two big reasons for unifying and beat the same dragon.
NY Times also gives some details about this meeting, even though there’s nothing official, here are some of the topics of the meeting that took a little more than an hour: Adobe’s possible acquisition by Microsoft and possibilities for Microsoft’s Silverlight and Adobe’s Flash can co exist in the same operating system.
Specialists said that this acquisition could cost Microsoft 15 billion dollars.
What do you think? Can you see these two fighting against Apple?
Scores.org created a complete infographic representing the timeline for Google’s acquisitions in their short life. A simple way to see what they bought, when and in what product this acquisition transformed.
We should know by now that any of the largest companies in the world right now are in fact the most important ones because of their appetite and their capabilities to buy other companies. Google indeed took some great decisions in the last 10 years about this: YouTube, FeedBurner, Postini and Picasa are just a few of those.
Take a look to the complete list. Take note that this infographic divides the acquisition in time and type (technology, market and talent):
