The music industry has been a hotbed for corporate activity this year.
The music industry has been a hotbed for corporate activity this year.
Apple $AAPL last week closed on a $3-billion purchase of Beats, Twitter $TWTR has reportedly been sniffing around SoundCloud, and there are signs that Spotify $SPOT has been considering an IPO.
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Now Vevo, the music video service part-owned by record labels, is about to be shopped around to prospective buyers, reports The Information (paywall). According to the report, the company, which is on track to generate $350 million in revenue this year, has engaged Goldman Sachs $GS and the boutique advisory firm Raine Group to “work on a strategic plan and talk to potential suitors.” Bloomberg had a similar story in April. Vevo declined to comment to Quartz.
Vevo’s owners include two record labels, Universal Music Group (owned by Vivendi) and Sony $SONY Music Entertainment, as well as Google $GOOGL and Abu Dhabi Media. Google’s investment last year valued the business at $650 million.
But there’s also a video angle on this story. The video-sharing site YouTube is believed to be the world’s single biggest music streaming service, and Vevo, which basically controls all of the major music label video content on the Google product, is a big part of that.
It is not clear whether the reported moves by Vevo have anything to do with YouTube’s apparently delayed plans to launch a subscription-based product some time this year. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
