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Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
BMG deals: Francis Dreyfus Music, Pokémon
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 31 May 2012
BMG has bought French music company Francis Dreyfus Music, which has both label and publishing divisions. According to the German music rights firm, the acquisition “adds remarkable iconic and contemporary songs as well as excellent jazz recordings to BMG’s master rights catalogue”.
BMG boss Hartwig Masuch told CMU: “We are very happy to be able to represent Dreyfus’s outstanding songwriters and artists. The Dreyfus jazz catalogue in particular is well-renowned and we see tremendous licensing potential in it”.
Meanwhile Hélène Dreyfus, widow of Francis, who founded his music company in 1970 and died in 2010, told reporters: “This was an important decision for my daughters and me. It was paramount for us to find a potential suitor who would continue the work of Francis with the same spirit of courage, fidelity and generosity that was always his way. After many months of conversation, we believe and trust that BMG will continue in this same manner. We are pleased to make this announcement. We also want to acknowledge our small but dedicated family of long time employees for their hard work and continued loyalty, especially during a difficult period”.
Elsewhere in BMG news, the music company announced yesterday it had renewed its exclusive worldwide administration deal with The Pokémon Company International, helping the Japanese firm manage, develop and exploit the music assets generated by the Pokémon franchise. Chrysalis, now part of BMG, has worked with the Pokémon firm since 1998.
BMG Chrysalis exec Laurent Hubert told CMU: “We have had the privilege of growing with Pokémon since its US debut in 1998. Pokémon was one of our first audio-visual based clients and has evolved into a cultural phenomenon, enjoying tremendous success throughout the world”.
Meanwhile JC Smith, Director Of Consumer Marketing for The Pokémon Company International said: “BMG Chrysalis US has been a valued partner for over a decade and we look forward to our continued relationship with them”.
These two deals come as BMG announces it is now actively managing over a million publishing copyrights, which it reckons makes it the fourth biggest music publisher in the world behind the majors (assuming you now count Sony/ATV and EMI as one company). Which is pretty impressive since the new BMG only launched in 2008. Though it has had access to a lot of cash courtesy of equity group business partners KKR, which has helped somewhat with the firm’s prolific acquisition spree.
