Business

Bertelsmann buys all of BMG

Auf Wiedersehen, Henry Kravis!

Germany’s Bertelsmann said yesterday it has agreed to buy KKR’s 51 percent stake in its BMG Rights joint venture — and sources said the media giant is already planning its next big purchase.

Kravis’ KKR will get $742 million for the stake, according to reports, after acquiring it for $270 million in 2009.

The Post predicted the move in October.

On Bertelsmann’s radar screen now, sources said, is Beverly Hills-based Concord Music Group, which was the top-winning label at this year’s Grammys.

Concord, home to Chick Corea, is valued at around $100 million and is owned by filmmaker Norman Lear and Village Roadshow.

BMG Rights, now 100 percent-owned by Bertelsmann, is now free to bid on whatever music assets it wants after years of being constrained by KKR’s more judicious ways.

For example, KKR’s strict 20 percent return-on-investment rule, sources said, was the main reason BMG Rights lost its bid for EMI Publishing, which went to Sony/ATV for $2.2 billion.

BMG Rights has been on an acquisition binge recently, buying up publishing rights for Cherry Lane, Stage Three, Chrysalis, Evergreen, Mute and Sanctuary, among others.

BMG Rights, sources added, will extend its interests in the steady music publishing business but also plans to hire a recorded music expert to help it collect rights to master recordings and win artists’ contracts such as country singer Martina McBride.