APRS NEWS
September 1998
EMI AT THE CROSSROADS
Talk around the industry, and around the City, is that EMI are contemplating an extension of their interests into the movie business by buying PFE [Polygram Filmed Entertainment].
Polygram failed to push PFE into profit presumably, EMI think they might. But if there is one thing certain about the movie business, its that it is very hard to turn the trick of making colossal profit rather than equally dramatic losses. Another next step thats said to be imminent for EMI is the restructuring of top management, with Sir Colin Southgate perhaps moving to the role of non-executive chairman. If EMI acquire PFE, they might also acquire Alain Levy, who founded PFE, but who would not necessarily sit comfortably with the ethos of EMI and its senior managers.
All this matters in the context of the British music industry as a whole. Just think of the impact on the total value of the UK music business now over �2.5billion - if EMI were to falter and be picked off by an international conglomerate!
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