A 2010 biography of the former Warner Music Group CEO and billionaire Edgar Bronfman, Jr. began by saying two things: That while he was "born rich as Croesus, he has opted to work hard every day," and that he "managed to lose $3 billion while doing so." That book, Fortune’s Fool, is about how Bronfman, an heir to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, decided that the future was in entertainment.
So with Friday’s sale of Warner Music Group to billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries for $3.3 billion, it’ll be interesting to see what Bronfman—the uncle of local musician Lauren Hoffman, and whose grandfather’s Georgetown Farm shut down in 2004—stands to gain from the sale. Various sources report that Bronfman owns about 7 percent of WMG’s stock.
For his part, the New York Times reports that Blavatnik also plans to buy the EMI Group—which changed hands as recently as February—and merge it with Warner Brothers, creating the largest record company in the world.
A drop in the bucket?