BMG buys Sanctuary

BMG has snapped up the Sanctuary catalogue, which includes recordings from Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, The Kinks, Donovan, Bert Jansch and Status Quo, and from classic former labels like Trojan, Sugarhill and Pye. The label one of the forced sales by Universal as part of its take over of EMI, although it was a UMG rather than an EMI asset. Warners had already announced it had acquired EMI's Parlophone label.  There are now two assets still to be sold as part of the conditions imposted by EU competition regulators: EMI's stake in the Now! franchise and the Co-operative indie distribution and marketing business: Sony is thought to be bidding for the former, while various independent labels and distributors are linked to bidding for the latter.