Sidley represented Warner Music Group (WMG) in its acquisition of a controlling stake in Tempo Music Investments (Tempo), an investment platform for premium music rights, from Providence Equity Partners (Providence). Providence will remain a minority investor in Tempo and continue to work with WMG in an advisory capacity.
The transaction will enhance WMG’s music rights portfolio and create new opportunities for artists and songwriters. Tempo has acquired music catalogs from some of today’s leading songwriters, some of whom Warner Chappell, WMG’s global music publishing company, already co-publishes, including twenty one pilots’ Tyler Joseph, multi-platinum-selling recording artist Wiz Khalifa, country duo Florida Georgia Line, and GRAMMY® Award-winning songwriters Brett James and Shane McAnally. Tempo has also acquired catalogs from top artists and producers such as Akon, singer-songwriter Mia Fieldes, GRAMMY® Award-winning songwriter, producer, and CMNTY Culture founder Philip Lawrence, and GRAMMY® Award-winning songwriter, producer, engineer, and Frank Ocean collaborator, Malay.
The Sidley team was led by partner and Entertainment, Sports and Media (ESM) co-chair Matthew Thompson, partner Luke Ashworth (ESM/Private Equity) and senior managing associate Cat Zhang (M&A) and included managing associate Kate McMahon (M&A), and associate Antonio Gutierrez (Private Equity). The team was supported by, among others, partner and Tax co-chair Rachel Kleinberg, senior managing associate Jonathan Westreich (Tax), partner Eric Wolf ( Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation), and managing associate Ryan McLeod (Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation).
