MBA dissertation a sony/BMG case study

Corporate Culture Modelling in M As Processes

A Happy Marriage ' in Music Production Industry

Sony BMG Case Study

September 2005

Abstract

The present research seeks to establish the direct and explicit connection between several concepts important in the modern globalised surrounding of the music production industry . With a given fact of M As and JVs models of strategic development when an organization prefers to receive the market expansion or advantages in distribution and share of revenues or consumers , the present research is useful for its search of existing models

of synergies on organisation levels . The has a special emphasis on the key strategic issues , namely on the questions of HRSM and cultural integration under the conditions of mergers and acquisitions as well as joint ventures

Recently more evidences are empirically received on the importance of acculturation processes in merged and acquired organisations with different outcomes : from assimilation to the evidence , however , seems to become universal for explaining the success or collapse of strategic processes of synergy on the organisation level Taking into account that the case study of SONY BMG Entertainment is rather recent , as the joint venture of two music production groups within the structure of two global media giants happened in August 2004 the seeks to examine all those factors which might produce any effect on the mergence of cultures in the conditions of diversified and shrinking media market

Table of Contents

Introduction .4

Literature Review .8

III Methodology .16

IV . Case Study .20

1 . A Merger or Joint Venture .20

2 . Leaders , Corporate Culture and Branding .29

V Conclusions .39

Works Cited .43

I . Introduction

In 2003 the world-wide professional community was shaken to the depth by the biggest music-merger activity in the past 15 years (Urso 26 between the two media moguls - Sony and BMG . The case seriously affected the condition of the global sound production market . After the end of the last M A (mergers and acquisitions ) wave , which happened in the end of 1980s , the industry was dominated by Sony , PolyGram , Bertelsmann Thorn-EMI , Warner , and MCA with only 5 left for the other players on the market . The Big Six ' gradually turned into The Big Four namely , EMI Group PLC , Sony-BMG , Vivendi Universal SA , and Warner Music Group (WMG . Soon after the deal was approved in the very end of July 2004 , the Impala , a trade association representing approximately 2000 small European indie ' record labels , raised its voice in November 2004 against the threat of a duopoly operating in the business without any real constraints (Willis . The merger reduces the number of major record companies from five to four , but that number could drop to three as EMI and Time Warner continue to kick around the idea of teaming up in these post-Napster times , warned Julie Keller . Should Sony BMG be approved and EMI and Time Warner merge , each would share about 25 percent of the music biz with Universal (which just gobbled up DreamWorks ' music division . The remaining 25 percent market...