Time Warner Inc. is debating whether to go ahead with a music merger with EMI Group after an announcement that Sony and BMG are merging their music labels, The New York Post said Friday.
CITING UNNAMED SOURCES, the Post said Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons may move to sell the music business instead to a private equity group headed by media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. if he thinks the Sony-BMG deal would delay regulatory approval for a Warner-EMI combination.
Bronfman is leading a group that includes media investor Haim Saban and private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Bronfman and Saban have stockpiled a bigger war chest to pursue a bid for Warner Music, signing private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Bain Capital to back a potential bid.
A spokesman for Time Warner was not immediately available to comment.
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