{"id":250047,"date":"2026-01-30T18:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=250047"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:33:49","slug":"bmg-in-talks-to-acquire-concord-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/bmg-in-talks-to-acquire-concord-report\/","title":{"rendered":"BMG in talks to acquire Concord (report)"},"content":{"rendered":"

BMG Rights Management is reportedly in discussions to acquire Concord, in a deal that would bring together two of the world’s biggest independent music companies.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> broke the news on Thursday (January 29), reporting that the potential transaction could be worth up to $7 billion. Billboard separately reported<\/a> that the company could sell for more than $6.6 billion, citing its own sources close to the negotiations.<\/p>\n

BMG is a division of German media giant Bertelsmann.<\/p>\n

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Concord previously explored a sale in 2022<\/a>, turning down offers of around $5 billion.<\/p>\n

The two parties are understood to be working through the financial structure of a potential agreement, though Bloomberg<\/em> notes the companies may not reach a deal.<\/p>\n

A transaction of this size would likely face regulatory scrutiny across multiple jurisdictions, including the US, EU and UK.<\/p>\n

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Should a deal materialise, Bob Valentine, Concord’s Chief Executive Officer, is expected to assume leadership of the combined entity, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

That would leave BMG’s current CEO, Thomas Coesfeld, free to focus on his forthcoming role at parent company Bertelsmann.<\/p>\n

As MBW reported in November, Coesfeld, whose grandfather Reinhard Mohn built Bertelsmann into a media empire, will assume the Chairman and CEO position at the parent company in January 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The merged company would rank among the largest music businesses globally, potentially positioning it as a fourth ‘major’ alongside Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group.<\/p>\n

Concord’s majority shareholder is Michigan Retirement Systems, the pension fund for the US state’s public school teachers. The fund has been a long-term backer of Concord.<\/p>\n

BMG has invested approximately \u20ac1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) in music rights acquisitions since 2021, Bloomberg <\/em>noted, completing 17 catalog deals in the first half of 2025 alone.<\/p>\n

Both companies declined to comment on the reports. A Concord spokesperson stated: “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on rumors or speculation.” A BMG spokesperson acknowledged “recent media speculation” but said the company does not comment on “market rumors or unconfirmed reports”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bertelsmann’s BMG in talks to buy Concord, Bloomberg reports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":250049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[188,1388],"class_list":["post-250047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bmg","tag-concord"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250047"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250066,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250047\/revisions\/250066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}