From Yahoo Music News:
The band Linkin Park wants to end its contract with Warner Music Group Corp. because it is unhappy with the financial implications of the company’s impending initial public offering, the band said Monday.
The band, which blended rap and rock on best-selling albums like Hybrid Theory and Meteora, is not going forward with plans to record its next Warner album, due in 2006. The group has a contract for four more albums with the record label.
“Linkin Park has become increasingly concerned that WMG’s diminished resources will leave it unable to compete in today’s global music marketplace, resulting in a failure to live up to WMG’s fiduciary responsibility to market and promote Linkin Park,” the band said in a statement issued by the band’s management agency, The Firm.
The group claimed that it became concerned about Warner’s ability to promote the band due to cost-cutting efforts at the company and the financial terms of its IPO, which is set to come to market this month.
A restructuring plan that is scheduled to save the company $250 million a year has resulted in a widespread reduction of employees at the company and cuts in marketing and promotional spending, the group said.
The IPO, which could raise as much as $782 million, will only provide about $7 million in cash for the company’s coffers, because the majority raised will be used to pay off debt.
The current owners of the company, including Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr., will be paid more than $200 million in special cash dividends and management termination fees if the IPO is completed.
Linkin Park claimed in its press release that the band is responsible for 10 percent of Warner Music’s record sales, and that its decision to hold off on recording a new album the group is instead considering increasing its reliance on touring, merchandise and endorsements will be “disastrous” for the music label.
Warner Music said the band’s contribution to the company’s bottom line was overstated, pointing to Nielsen SoundScan data that shows Linkin Park’s albums have made up about 3 percent of the company’s U.S. sales in the last five years.
“While Linkin Park’s talent is without question, the band’s management is using fictitious numbers and making baseless charges and inflammatory threats in what is clearly a negotiating tactic. Warner Bros. Records has made significant investments in Linkin Park, and they have always been compensated generously for their outstanding worldwide success,” Warner said.
In More Linkin Park News:
Linkin Park Frontman Splitting Up With Wife
Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington and his wife, Samantha, are splitting up after nine years of marriage, according to Celebrity Justice. “Irreconcilable differences” are noted as the reason for the break-up in court papers. The estranged couple is also reportedly battling over custody rights to their three-year-old son, Draven. Bennington claims that his spouse is trying to limit his visitation rights, saying, “I have every ability to care and nurture him.”
The Benningtons have agreed not make any defamatory remarks about each other in front of Draven while the case is being resolved. The couple separated in January of this year, according to the court documents.
The documents also state that neither member of the couple shall allow another adult to sleep in bed with them if Draven is sleeping in his bed in the same room.
Chester Bennington once called his 1996 marriage to Samantha, at the age of 20, the “most poignant moment” of his life. He credited her with helping him heal emotionally from sexual abuse he suffered as a child, as well as pulling him out of an addiction to cocaine.
