From Billboard:
In a burst of activity, the Concord Music Group and its sister publishing company, the Bicycle Music Company, have merged to form Concord Bicycle Music. The combined company immediately turned around and acquired Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records from the Welk Music Group, in a deal that closed today.
The company also announced it has raised $100 million for acquisitions and to implement further growth strategies. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
The merger and subsequent acquisitions create a new indie powerhouse that will have an estimated $125 million in annual revenue, with a master recording portfolio of about 10,000 albums, and a music publishing catalog of about 60,000 songs. Albums now under the combined company include work from such artists as George Benson, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Creed, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, Evanescence, Isaac Hayes, Kenny G, Carole King, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Steve Martin, Paul McCartney and Wings, Nine Inch Nails, the Offspring, Robert Plant, Otis Redding, Seether, Paul Simon, Social Distortion, the Staple Singers, James Taylor, George Thorogood, Tone Loc, and Esperanza Spalding. The Bicycle Music publishing catalog includes such songs as “Always On My Mind,” “Eye Of The Tiger,” “Guantanamera,” “Lady Sings The Blues,” “Let Your Love Flow,” “Man In The Mirror,” “Slow Ride,” “Stand By Your Man,” “Time After Time,” and the songs from A Chorus Line.
The Vanguard and Sugar Hill acquisition adds albums from such artists as Merle Haggard, O.A.R., John Fogerty, Levon Helm, The Indigo Girls, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joseph Arthur, Lee Ann Womack, Marc Broussard, Bruce Hornsby, Chris Isaak, and Bare Naked Ladies; and a catalog of albums from Buddy Guy, Mississippi John Hurt, John Hammond, the Weavers, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, James Cotton and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
