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Fresh suitors eye EMI after Warner merger collapses

Step forward BMG

Germany's Bertelsmann Music Group is believed to be making moves on EMI, following the UK company's decision to call off its proposed merger with Time Warner's Warner Music Group.

And BMG isn't alone. According to a New York Times report, Hong Kong-based Internet and telecoms operation Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) has its eye on EMI too.

The BMG plan was revealed by industry sources in German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, though the company itself declined to comment.

Neither would PCCW.

EMI and Warner scrapped their immediate merger plans this week after failing to reach an agreement with European Commission anti-trust regulators that would allow the merger to continue alongside Warner parent Time Warner's proposed $135 billion tie-up with AOL.

EMI and Warner remain keen to come together - or so they said - so any bid from BMG and/or PCCW would be presumably be treated as a hostile act. PCCW has attempted to take EMI over before, though the NYT reports that it lacks the financial weight to do so on its own. ®

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