MUSIC INDUSTRY: BERTELSMANN AND EMI ABANDON MERGER PLANS.

• Position: Company Business and Marketing

"Both companies feel that it is not in the interests of shareholders, artists or employees to allow the uncertainty to continue", adds the press release. "Our companies will now continue along their respective paths. BMG's status as a magnet for entrepreneurial and creative talent and our cutting-edge distribution concepts put us in a good position in the music business", said Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Middelhoff.Bertelsmann Music Group is the music business division of Bertelsmann, which it had been planning to merge with EMI. Insider sources suggest that the European competition authorities were concerned that a merger between Bertelsmann and EMI would have reduced the number of "top" world music companies to four. According to Bertelsmann, the US competition authorities were also questioning the planned merger. Neither company was prepared to hand over the jewel in their respective crowns - Virgin Records for EMI which has the pop groups The Spice Girls and The Rolling Stones on its label, and the RCA label for BMG, which has Elvis Presley...