The largest media company in Europe, Bertelsmann is buying out the stake of private equity firm KKR from their joint venture music rights management company BMG. The German media firm also owns TV RTL and publisher Random House.
The deal is expected to be completed before the third quarter of 2013 and the financial terms of the deal would remain confidential. Insiders though told Reuters that the price tag would be between Eur700 to 800 million or US$915 million to US$1.05 billion, which includes the music publishing firm's existing debts.
BMG is a management company for music publishing rights and other accessory music business rights. It currently has one million songs in its portfolio, with artists such as Bruno Mars, Will.I.Am and Johnny Cash.
This is the second BMG sale by KKR, with the previous sale completed two weeks ago between KKR and Permira, another investment fund management firm. The deal was worth Eur485 million where Permira represented German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat 1.
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