Sony has announced that they are buying the 50% stake in Sony BMG held by German media giant Bertelsmann in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. The deal is a touch convoluted but it basically results in Bertelsmann receiving approximately $900 million in value for its 50% stake in Sony BMG.

"Last year the BMG unit saw revenue fall 27% to $2.25 billion while operating profit dropped 46% to $144 million." Bertelsmann obviously wanted out. The business is crumbling, and they are in no position to try and leverage the master recordings like Sony can with its electronic products. Sony understands that Apple leverages music to sell iPods. They should be able to do the same.

The biggest thing that surprises me is that Bertelsmann sells their stake in music for less than 50% of revenues. That really indicates to me that the value of recorded music - on its own - remains on a path toward near zero.

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