That means Blavatnik will have to cut staff and other expenses further and hope that a new wave of innovation will carry digital music sales higher.
“I am excited to extend my longstanding involvement with Warner Music,’’ Blavatnik, 53, said in a statement. “It is a great company with a strong heritage and home to many exceptional artists.’’
Blavatnik is a former board member who was part of the group that bought the company in 2004. He has about a 2 percent stake in the company.
The sale ends a seven-year run by investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive, who purchased the company from Time Warner Inc. with private equity backing for $2.6 billion. Those investors slashed payrolls and took other measures to cope with music’s decline. They took the company public a year later to help recoup their investment. There are now just 3,700 employees, down from 5,100 in late 2003.
Blavatnik will probably have to cut even more — so much so that billionaire Ron Burkle balked at pursuing the company past an initial round of bidding. Burkle worried that cuts might start to hurt Warner-signed artists he considers friends, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
