It's helpful to think of the flow of capital acquired through privatization of Russian state property into US-based and EU-based businesses as a form of money laundering. It's about legitimizing these assets and moving them farther away from the source of their original dubious provenance. DST investments are yet another instance of that.
From the value perspective these investments don't seem to make much sense, but value is not the primary objective, or not the only objective in this case. It's also about legitimization and moving assets outside of purview of those who could potentially reclaim them.
"a $3.3bn deal" sounds to me like just "puff". He paid 1.3bn for the company and took on the company's debt. The transfering of debts adds to the amount of money involved with the deal but not how much he effectively paid for WB
(IE, one presumes that by gaining control of WB, he gained control of the assets which hypothetically backed the 1.9bn debt so whether he owes the debt or whether warner-which-he-controls owes the debt doesn't change anything except to make some bankers feel more secure).
I don't know if my understanding is right but so far as my understanding of the language goes, both you and the parent are wrong.
He's paid 1.4 bn for control of WB and as a condition of the deal he took on 1.9 Bn in existing debt that WB already had. Assuming that WB was solvent and those debts weren't written down, taking on this debt would be transaction that involved spending no money as such - if a parent company takes on the debt of a solvent subsidiary, there's no real money being spent (the subsidiary increases in value by debt amount, the parent decreases in value by an identical amount money and total transaction's bookkeeping value is zero - though such a transaction would make a banker holding the debt feel more secure and would involve money if the transfered debts had been written-down and were now going to be paid in full).
That's my understanding, some true finance wonk can correct me if I'm wrong.
The article says he made his money in property and subsidized industries. I don't really know, but I'm afraid this might mean he's even more likely to pursue stupid property laws and continue antagonizing Warner's customers. Does anyone have a better idea of what might change at WM as a result of this deal?
this makes me wonder if music is about to be unlocked. all it really takes is for one of the majors to realize that music is a service and not a product and completely disrupt the music industry. similar to the monetization strategy of social games -- spend money chasing the people who will pay by giving them reasons to buy rather than throwing good money after bad by litigating against people who won't pay in trying to recoup some silly notion of a 'lost sale.'
then again... this is the self-destructive music industry we're talking about here.
A friend and I were discussing the other day. Apple just needs to buy all the 4 big music record labels. Perhaps other technology companies should just buy them up (Google/MS). The reasoning behind this is well, these companies have their own agenda and they simply don't get it. Record labels seem to be on this self distractive path built upon ego and short term thinking. They clearly are afraid to embrace the internet culture (see Amazon cloud player/licensing) and other innovative distribution channels.
Why do I think a tech company should buy these labels?
I don't think the labels have a product mind set. What is the last innovative product apart from the CD that has come from labels. Even talking about the CD, there has been no incremental improvements in that technology over the last 10 year when it comes to music. They are simply not in the business of creating a product for the consumer.
Music is all about experience and great products can improve that experience and potentially open up more revenue streams.
Maybe this guy is on to something.
(ps - Passionate about this space. Working on a music startup @mugasha)
I probably know less about this than you but I'll try to paraphrase an earlier response here from a music industry veteran.
What I remember him saying was that the music industry is not the big four labels. The music industry is a multi-trillion dollar conglomeration of entities with the labels merely one part of a giant pipeline. It's not that the record labels "don't get it" but that they have to balance contractual obligations up-the-kazoo, between them and artists, between them and agencies, between them and other content consumers etc. They don't own music, they own the right to sell music in a certain way. Buy them and you won't suddenly gain the right to sell the music in a different way.
I mean, what are the economics of a one-mile pipe line where ten parties each control a tenth of a mile of pipeline. You might buy nine of the parties with the idea of getting free-flow but if the tenth party suddenly demands 10x as much, you can wind-up equally screwed. In a situation like this, if you want a pipeline with low overhead, you may find building a whole new pipeline is easier than buying the many interests controlling this existing one.
Apple doesn't need to buy the Big 4, they're quickly disrupting them. The Big 4 used to offer, publicity, promotion, and distribution--now iTunes does all of that. Record labels are dinosaurs who are unwilling or incapable of adapting to survive.
Apple is not competing with the record labels, so they can't disrupt them.
Labels are not going anywhere, artists need labels for various reasons. The function of labels is changing which is what is interesting. They labels are hesitant to change their model.
Apple is indirectly competing with record labels and the services they once provided--promotion, distribution (iTunes), publicity (Ping).
But you're right, Apple isn't trying to be a one stop shop like a record label, Apple is only going after a piece--that is what record labels should be adjusting to. Record labels should try to differentiate and offer whatever services Apple isn't--marketing, advertising, studio space, etc.
"Having made his fortune in property and the former Russian nationalised industries, Blavatnik has faith that content companies are where future growth will be..."
Having much experience in the profitable Russian rackets, he believes that the American racket known as "intellectual property" has far to go! I guess he'll buy some patent trolls next.
His company has also been a significant stakeholder in Warner Music since 2004.