Warner Music Group sold for $3.3 billion to Access Industries’ Len Blavatnik
Warner Music Group's Artists Linkin Park
Access Industries, a holding company founded by oil baron Len Blavatnik, won the auction to buy Warner Music Group Corp. for $3.3 billion in cash, the companies announced Friday morning.
Blavatnik edged out more than a dozen other suitors including Sony Music Group, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, Platinum Equity, Live Nation Entertainment and investment firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts, whose unsolicited offer late last year kicked off the auction process. KKR's partner in the bidding was German music company Bertelsmann.
The deal calls for Warner to receive $8.25 per share, a 34% premium over the company's average stock price over the last six weeks, the company said. It's also 75% higher than Warner's closing price on Jan. 20, the day before the New York Times published news of the bidding. Warner's share closed at $7.90 on Thursday....
How Safe Is Your Data? Lessons of the PlayStation Security Breach
For seventy million users of Sony's PlayStation Network, this is a weird time — one in which they're being simultaneously deprived of the shoot-em-ups they crave and used as pawns in an epic conflagration between Sony and a shadowy, wily opponent. It started on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th, when a post on Sony's PSN blog noted that the PlayStation Network and Qriocity service — which the PlayStation 3 console relies on for multiplayer PlayStation 3 games, movies, and music — were out of commission. A day later, another post estimated that it might be a day or two before they returned. Then one announced that Sony had detected an "external intrusion" and had intentionally taken the services offline to fortify them....
Sony PlayStation Network Shut Down ‘Indefinitely’ Following Attack
Sony's PlayStation Network,
plagued by problems for days, is being shut down indefinitely, according to the
Wall Street Journal.
PlayStation
tweeted a link to a blog post updating users on the situation.
"I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time,"
wrote Patrick Seybold, Sony's senior director of corporate communications and social media. "As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we’re working to get them back online quickly. We’ll keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience."
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