Let's temper our enthusiasm with a healthy dose of reality regarding
Bronfman's track record for entertainment business acumen...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stewart Mason" <flamingo@theworld.com>
> It's that third-from-last word that intrigues me about this.  If I'm
> understanding my reading of this morning's business page correctly -- not
> always a safe bet, as I could be a little better with numbers -- Bronfman
> bought WMG in partnership with Bain Capital (a private VC firm based here
> in Massachusetts) and one other major investor whose name I forget, both
of
> whom are hands-off sources of bucks, which basically means that WMG is no
> longer in thrall to a huge board of directors who made their money in
> funeral parlors or French utility companies and don't understand that a
> record company doesn't necessarily follow the same business model that
> they're used to.  Warner Brothers was in a very similar set of
> circumstances in the late '60s and '70s when it was owned by the Kinney
> corporation, who didn't pretend that they knew a damn thing about the
music
> business and were happy to let the record people get on with it as long as
> they weren't losing *too* much money on the deal.  During that period,
> Warner/Reprise was just about the most vital and interesting record label
> in the world.  This could be interesting.
>
> S
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