City big hitter faces a fight to turn around the music group, reports Dominic White
Is Guy Hands right about EMI? That is the debate raging in the music industry as Hands' private equity lieutenants from Terra Firma crawl over the company that signed the Beatles in an effort to make his bumper £3.2bn acquisition stack up.
The former investment banker is seeking deep cost savings from an industry notorious for its rock and roll profligacy.
About time, say some executives fighting sliding CD sales and rampant web piracy. But creatives at the company behind Kylie and Coldplay fear that Hands is playing a dangerous game.
He has criticised some artists for simply negotiating the best advance rather than "working with their label to promote, perfect and endorse their music", as others do.
He has since written to EMI artists seeking to reassure them that they are "at the epicentre" of his plans to turn the struggling business around.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2007/12/10/cnemi210.xml
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