Gang Starr Music Sells For $169 Million

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R.I.P. Guru I hope his family and Primo reap the benefits of this saleMy real DJ’s and hip hop heads remember when Gang Starr was on Chrysalis and now it’s turned around and just got a big pay day. I don’t know the legal status of Gang Starr and the record label at this point and time but they did a few albums over there and what part of royalties are still involved. Don’t forget Guru’s solo Jazzmatazz albums were housed over there too.

Besides for Gang Starr Chrysalis has a long history with hip hop, The music publisher has rights to Blondie who had the mention of Fab 5 Freddy and kicked a quick verse on the legendary song Rapture. The label is also responsible for releasing the soundtrack to the legendary hip hop movie Wild Style. Hip hop wasn’t the backbone to the labels sale they did also have Tom Jones and dirty south representer Cee Lo Green.

Here’s how the story goes

The 43-year-old London-based firm, which was founded by Chris Wright and which had received and rejected takeover bids in the past several years, agreed yesterday to be bought by BMG Rights Management, a co-venture between KKR and Bertelsmann, for $169 million.

Chrysalis, one of the biggest independent music publishers around, is the latest company to sell itself.

While record labels battle against shrinking CD sales, music publishing is seen as a more stable business because rights to a song composition — rather than the performance — can be exploited in multiple avenues such as TV shows, movies, advertising and ring-tones, for instance.

In the nine months ended April 30, Chrysalis reported that consolidated revenue, which doesn’t include royalties paid to writers or performers, grew by 15.6 percent compared to the year earlier period.

Such strong performances make them attractive takeover targets.

In the past few months, BMG Rights, headquartered in Berlin, has acquired several other music publishers, including Cherry Lane, Stage 3, Adage IV and Evergreen.

BMG’s CEO Hartwig Masuch, in a statement, said, “The acquisition of Chrysalis represents an important step forward in our strategy as we build a major, global music-rights business.”

Bertelsmann — which, with KKR, owns BMG Rights — can exploit music catalogs through its many media assets, including RTL Group, which owns European TV stations and Fremantle Media.

Warner Music Group and EMI — along with independents California-based Bug Music and U.K.-based Imagem Music — previously looked to buy Chrysalis. In fact, EMI made an offer of $162 million for Chrysalis in 2008, according to reports, after previously acquiring Chrysalis Records, but the offer was rejected.

According to Billboard, this latest deal could make BMG Rights the world’s fifth largest music publisher.

Wright, who owns a 29 percent stake in Chrysalis, is joining the board of BMG

Shouts To NY post