Hedge fund Terra Firma Capital Partners' corporate name feels like a misnomer these days, standing as it is on shaky musical ground.
Before taking over major-label behemoth EMI last year, the private equity player got the gas face from top-shelf British acts like Radiohead and Paul McCartney, who walked away from EMI the minute they could. On Friday, Terra Firma scored the humiliation hat trick when The Rolling Stones, the planet's highest-earning act of 2007, defected to Universal Vivendi.
Cue up "No Expectations." Or is that no earnings?
Whichever it is, one would be incorrect to assume that the exodus is over. Terra Firma honcho Guy Hands also seems incorrectly named, given that high-profile bands keep slipping through his fingers. One would figure that Hands' experience playing Lady MacBeth in his youth would have taught him a few things about power plays, or maybe hedge funds just don't know how to run a music biz. Whatever the case, in two quick years the once-bulletproof EMI has lost three of the UK's iconic acts, and could stand to lose Coldplay and Robbie Williams going forward.
this audio or video is no longer availableWhat's going to stop the bleeding? What would Lady MacBeth do?
Photo: AP/Remy de la Mauviniere
