Warner Music Group to axe 1,000
Warner Music Group announced 1,000 job cuts and a shakeup of top management today, one day after Edgar Bronfman closed a deal to buy the company from Time Warner Inc.
The company is also consolidating the back-office functions of its Elektra and Atlantic labels.
The job cuts, which are equivalent to 20% of Warner Music Group’s global work force, will take place over the next month.
Three senior executives will also be leaving the company: Val Azzoli, the co-chairman of Atlantic Records, the label’s co-president Ron Shapiro, and Sylvia Rhone, the chairman of Elektra.
Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, will be staying with the company but his exact role has yet to be determined, according to company spokesman Will Tanous.
Warner Music said in a statement in New York it was taking the restructuring steps to better compete in the “challenging business environment of today’s music industry.”
Bronfman and an investor group that includes Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners, agreed to pay £1.5bn (€2.2bn) for Warner Music Group in November after London-based EMI Group PLC pulled its own bid.
The purchase, which also includes Time Warner’s Warner/Chappell Music publishing business, creates one of the world’s largest independent music companies, with an artist roster that includes Kid Rock, Madonna, Faith Hill, and Metallica.
