LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — EMI, label home to Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Pink Floyd announced that its lost more than $1.2 billion in the year since it was taken over at the cost of €5.9 billion by private equity fund Terra Firma, led by Guy Hands.
Accompanying the announcement of the losses was a preamble by former BBC Director-General Lord Birt who described the report as a "a forthright presentation of problems" and "the absence of rosy assurances about the future".
Hands and Terra Firma spent the year slashing costs at EMI to the bone, shedding thousands of jobs as the label struggled to reorganize itself. The drastic reorganization rankled many of the label's prominent artists including Robbie Williams, who refused to release his latest album the label. The year also saw the high profile defection of the Rolling Stones who, in July, signed with Universal after decades of collaboration with EMI, taking their lucrative back catalog with them.
Since the takeover, revenues for EMI have dropped by 19% and more troubling for the label giant, their market share fell by 7.9%.
Part of the losses were related to the re-organization, including a $195.7 million charge connected to the layoffs and interest charges on debt of $262 million. Overall, EMI's carrying more than $4.1 billion in debt.
Although Terra Firma is a private equity firm, the report was published in compliance with recently enacted rules in the UK requiring private equity-owned firms to release financial data annually. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
