The Warner Music Group (WMG) share-price on the New York Stock Exchange has dropped by more than 50% since November 1, 2007 and is down around 80% in the last 12 months, indicating more problems for the battered record industry.
Warner is third biggest major music company after Universal and SonyBMG, but has a higher market share than either Sony or BMG as standalone labels.The music industry has been closely monitoring the drop that has seen Warner lose more than $3 billion in value throughout 2007.
As of close of trade today, the company had a market cap (value) of $738.64 million. A year ago it was valued at more than $4 billion.
The future of the company has become a hot topic for industry forum sites. US music industry site The Velvet Rope has been rampant with speculation.
The discussion is revolving around a potential buyer, who that might be and when that would happen.
Insiders expect that there will be further drops in the share price before such action is taken and a new buyer swoops in. The share price has dropped from above $7 to below $5 in just one week.
Names being tossed around as potential interested parties include Google, Apple and Amazon. News Corporation has also been mentioned as a potential buyer. News used to own Festival Records and later Mushroom Records in Australia and sold the combined company to Warner.
Warner this week announced that the company would be soon supplying non-DRM downloads to Amazon and the acquisition of independent music site Insound.com.
Warner Music artists currently in the charts include Josh Groban, Led Zeppelin, Paramore, Linkin Park and James Blunt.
