Viacom Sells Famous Music to Sony
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/30/2007 8:26:00 AM
While CBS continues to build on its music profile, corporate sibling Viacom struck a deal to sell its extensive Famous Music library to Sony, according to various reports.
A source with knowledge of the deal put the purchase price at $400 million, with $370 million of that in cash and the rest assumption of debt.
In February, Viacom hired investment bank UBS to shop its music publishing business .
Viacom inherited the Top 10 music publisher, founded in 1928, when it bought Paramount. The Famous catalog contains some 125,000 copyrights including music from The Godfather and Titanic as well as TV shows Mission Impossible, the Star Trek franchise, Brady Bunch and Cheers. It also has songs from artists as varied as Eminem and Marvin Hamlisch.
Famous Music also handles licensing and administration of the music catalogs for co-owned MTV, Nickelodeon and BET.
Viacom's entire portfolio has gotten the once-over since the September arrival of Phillipe Dauman and Thomas Dooley, the men who succeeded former CEO Tom Freston.
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