Warner Music Group, which hired Goldman Sachs earlier this year to shop the company, is disappointed by the low-ball bids it has received so far for its prized Warner Chappell music publishing business, according to two senior music industry executives.
Sources close to Warner say that several bidders are moving through to the second round and that they’ve had bids around $1.5 billion, considered the low end, and at the higher end, in the $2 billion range.
Warner denied the bids were low, saying it had received a range of bids.
This is especially souring for WMG because executives and investors in the firm believe the music publishing arm is the better of the two business segments.
Warner’s shares closed yesterday at $5.88, down 2.6 percent, putting the music company’s market cap at just north of $900 million.
“No one is coming up with the prices,” said one source close to the process, who added that it appears to be mainly financial players, rather than big music companies, that are leading the bidding. While reports suggest that WMG received more than 10 bids it appears that the big strategics — such as Universal and Sony — would only pursue pieces of Warner Music.
WMG will hold a high-level board meeting this week to decide how to proceed, sources told The Post.
One source suggested that the majority of board members, who include Warner’s main backer Thomas H. Lee Partners, faced with the disappointing bids for Chappell, want to proceed with a sale of the whole company. Meanwhile, Warner CEO, Edgar Bronfman wants to sell only publishing in order to proceed with a long-held desire to buy EMI.
“The majority of the board is pushing Edgar to not just offer Warner Chappell, the publishing business,” to prospective buyers, said this person. “Now is the time to get out and get the money — but Edgar is pushing back.”
A WMG source disagreed, saying Bronfman didn’t have a problem with a sale of the entire company.
The true intentions of the owners are hard to discern since how they proceed will be dictated by the best bids. But the lack of clarity is causing some headaches. “It is a [messy] show,” said one, adding that KKR was kicked out of the bidding because they low balled.
A source close to billionaire entrepreneur, Len Blavatnik, indicated he had not made a bid despite previous reports to the contrary.
Universal Music Group is expected to this week submit an expression of interest in parts of Warner’s recorded business, said a source close to the talks. A spokesman declined comment.
Another said Sony was in a much better position with regard to its bid now that former Universal executive Doug Morris just signed on to run Sony Music. Sony is also said to be interested in parts of the company. Meanwhile another name, Guggenheim Partners, emerged as an interested party.
A source close to WMG said the entire sale process was expected to conclude within the next three weeks.
Neither Sony nor Universal have so far made a bid.