Windswept Pacific Sells Major Assets to EMI Music; Windswept Retains Hitco and Lucrative Writer Agreements and Joint Ventures

Business Wire, July 29, 1999

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 28, 1999--

Windswept Pacific Music Co. has sold a significant portion of its historical catalog to EMI Music for $200 million and the assumption of some liabilities, it was announced Wednesday by Evan Medow, president of Windswept, and Ichiro Asatsuma, president of Fujipacific Music, Windswept's parent company and the largest and most successful music publisher in Japan.

The terms of the deal represent the most money ever paid for an independent publishing company to date. Windswept Pacific retains a portion of its catalog, most of its active agreements with songwriters and all of its joint ventures, including the successful Hitco Music Publishing Co., and its arrangement with L.A. Reid, president of LaFace Records and one of the world's most respected record executives.

"We have been able to retain substantial assets, including Hitco and L.A. Reid, our agreements with Pete Townshend and Gregg Allman, as well as our entire stable of existing songwriters, who we consider to be some of the finest in the world across all genres," said Medow.

"We are now positioned to move forward into a new and exciting phase of our existence. I would like to thank Mr. Asatsuma for the opportunities I've had to build Windswept into the largest independent music publisher and now to continue to move forward from a position of strength as a revitalized and aggressive music and entertainment company."

Asatsuma added: "We are obviously very happy with the success of Windswept to date and now believe the company is poised for even greater successes in the new millennium."

Hitco Music is based in Atlanta and has several recent success stories, including the hit song "No Scrubs" from TLC and "Bills Bills Bills" by Destiny's Child.

Windswept Music will continue to operate out of its offices in Los Angeles and London, with satellite offices in New York City and Nashville.

Windswept's negotiations were led by Evan Medow, John Frankenheimer of Loeb & Loeb, Robert Allan of Denton Hall in London, Moshe Kupietzky of Sidley & Austin, and John Rudolph, Windswept's chief financial officer.