How the City failed one of Britain's greatest success stories

Ever since the private-equity mogul Guy Hands bought EMI for £2.4bn in 2007 for his private-equity fund, the business has lurched from one disaster to another.

It is hard to know how much longer the record label EMI can stagger on. One week it is selling the legendary Abbey Road studios. The next, the CEO is replaced with the veteran broadcasting executive Charles Allen. A day later, it loses a legal battle with Pink Floyd over whether it can sell single tracks as downloads.

Ever since the private-equity mogul Guy Hands bought the business for £2.4bn in 2007 for his private-equity fund, the business has lurched from one disaster to another. Even against some stiff competition, it must unquestionably rank as one of the worst takeover deals of all time. Indeed, EMI's sorry tale illustrates how the City can take one of Britain's most successful companies and turn it into a complete dog's breakfast.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.