According to the annual financial report for EMI, smallest of the Big 4 record labels, the company lost 624 million euros (just over $800 million using today’s conversion rates) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.
The report is prepared each year by EMI’s owner, Terra Firma owned Maltby Capital, a Terra Firma owned company which purchased EMI in 2007.
Maltby Capital Chairman Stephen Alexander began the report by addressing developments in recent months suggesting Citigroup, the principal lender in Terra Firma’s acquisition of EMI, might take over the company due to an alleged breach of lending terms.
Alexander wrote, “despite the issues around the financing structure and the related public speculation, both divisions of EMI have shown marked progress in their underlying performance during the course of the last twelve months.”
This translates into losing less money than the previous year, which saw a loss of more than 1.7 billion euros. He also admitted having no actual first hand knowledge of the legal proceedings between Citigroup and Terra Firma.
There is a glimmer of hope for the future if they can survive long enough. EMI’s goal, it says, is becoming “a comprehensive rights management company that can take full advantage of global opportunities in all markets for music to the maximum benefit of its artists and songwriters.”
But are they doing enough to make that a reality? The report’s section on EMI’s recorded music division focused almost entirely on a handful of best selling artists. Diversification into new areas like merchandise distribution and their live recording/distribution service, Abbey Road Live, were almost a footnote.
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Result for: previous year
On Thursday, Nintendo will report its earnings for the fiscal year ended March 31st, and for the first time since 2004, its profit is expected to be lower than the previous year’s.
The company says it expects a profit of 230 billion yen ($2.42 billion USD), down from their record fiscal 2009 where the company made 279 billion yen ($2.94 million USD).
Nintendo blamed the lowered profits on a strong yen last year, and the price cut on the Wii console last October, from $250 to $200 USD.
Analysts had expected a full fiscal year profit of 229 billion yen.
The company is also expecting to have sold 20 million Wii units and 30 million DS/DSi during the period, but some analysts seem to think they are sandbagging. “We are expecting the results to be better than the company forecasts for the Wii,” notes Yuta Sakurai of Nomura Securities. “Christmas shopping was strong.”
Result for: previous year
According to a Harris Interactive survey of U.S. Internet users, it appears the average users spends about 13 hours a week online, however, the range is very large.
Over the past decade, online time has doubled from just under 7 hours in 1999 to the current survey results. At its peak, in October 2008 (during the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the upcoming election of President Obama), online time was over 14 hours.
For age breakdowns, the group spending the most time online was the 30-39 age group, with an average of 18 hours. 25-29 year-olds spent 17 hours on average, as did 40-49 year-olds. In total, there are about 184 million adults online, the same number for the most part as 2008.
“The increase in the number of hours spent online in the last two years compared to all previous years is striking. It probably reflects a growing ability to use the Internet, an increase in sites and applications, increased TV watching online and increased purchasing online,” said Harris. “Also, hours online may have increased because of the recession. Going online is free; going out usually costs money.”
