Warner Brothers Records Group
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Profile
Headquarters: New York City
Group Chairman a Chief Executive Officer: Tom Whalley
Corporation Type: Public (NYSE: WMG)
Warner Music Group Website: http://www.wmg.com/
Label Division Website: http://www.wbr.com/
Warner Brothers Records Incorporated is one of seven corporate divisions that presently comprise the Warner Music Group. The label was originally founded by Jack Warner in 1958. In 1967, Warner Bros acquired Atlantic, with both labels under the umbrella of the Warner-Seven Arts Corporation. In 1969, The Kinney Corporation purchased the Warner and Atlantic label from Seven Arts. A year later, Kinney acquired Elektra Records and formed Warner-Elektra-Atlantic (WEA) in 1970. Though the three label groups competed against one another under the control of the parent corporation, WEA established a regional distribution system throughout the United States that enabled their labels to control a key sector of their business, circumvent the independents and compete head to head with other major labels of their day.
In 1972, Kinney changed their corporate name to Warner Communications. In 1987, the company merged with Time Inc. and the multi-media conglomerate Time Warner was formed. After a short sighted merger with AOL in 2000, AOL-Time Warner was forced to spin off the label group in an attempt to reduce its debt. A deal to sell the labels to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman for $2.6 billion was reached in February 2004. Shortly after the acquisition, the newly named Warner Music Group was restructured in an attempt to reduce costs and increase performance.