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SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Sony Music Entertainment is a major global record label controlled by the Sony Corporation.
In 1988, Sony Corporation acquired CBS Records for $2 billion and renamed the label to Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. CBS Inc., now CBS Corporation, retained the rights to the CBS name. Also in 1991, Sony Music Ent. re-signed Michael Jackson, who's contract had just ended for CBS, for an estimated $1 Billion. The deal included multiple albums, motion pictures and books. It was the biggest contract in music history.
Sony re-introduced the Columbia label after it bought the international rights of the label from EMI. Epic Records is the other pop branch of Sony Music. The only country where Sony does not have rights to the Columbia name is Japan, where the name is controlled by Nippon Columbia, a unit of Denon.
In August 2004, Sony Music Entertainment created a joint-venture with BMG to form Sony BMG Music Entertainment; however, Sony continues to operate its Japanese music business.
In November 2005, Texas Attorney General as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a digital rights group based in California) separately filed civil lawsuits against Sony BMG Music Entertainment for hiding spyware software on its compact discs that left computers that run the Windows operating system vulnerable to hackers.
Sony BMG may once again become simply Sony Music Entertainment should Sony purchase Bertelsmann's half of the venture. On March 27, 2006, the New York Times reported that Bertelsmann was looking to raise money by leveraging some of its media assets, and that executives from both companies were in talks about possibly altering the current venture. Two sources close to Sony BMG have suggested that Bertelsmann may offer Sony its half of the company, though executives have emphasized that any changes will likely take months to conclude.
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