Universal Music Cinches Deal for Rondor

Seagram’s Universal Music Group closed an estimated $400-million deal Wednesday to acquire Rondor Music, the world’s leading independent music publishing company, from record industry veterans Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss.

Universal, the world’s largest record company, beat out Sony and Bertelsmann to land the 60,000-song catalog, which includes classic tunes by Al Green, Otis Redding and the Beach Boys and new hits by Madonna collaborator William Orbit. Time Warner and EMI Music dropped out of the bidding due to antitrust concerns stemming from their proposed merger.

“This is a huge deal in the world of publishing,” said Universal Music Group Chief Operating Officer Zach Horowitz, who negotiated the purchase. “These are gems--some of the most popular and recognizable songs ever recorded.”

Among its massive collection, Rondor contains every soul song in the legendary Stax catalog, including Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” and Green’s “Love and Happiness.” It also contains such Beach Boy hits as “Good Vibrations” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”

Universal and Rondor declined to discuss the terms of the agreement. But sources say the deal was primarily a stock transaction in which Universal paid a multiple of about 20 times net publisher share for Rondor.

With Rondor under its roof, Universal sets itself up to become the second-biggest music publisher in the world. But Universal, which is about to be gobbled up by French giant Vivendi, still trails significantly behind world leader EMI, which will grow even larger this year when it joins forces with Time Warner’s Warner Chappell division.

Rondor was launched 38 years ago in Hollywood by Alpert and Moss, who came up with the name for the company by combining the first names of two of their children, Ron and Dory. Rondor will continue to be run by its longtime president, Lance Freed, son of famed 1950s rock deejay Alan Freed.

One of the first compositions published by Rondor was Alpert’s own “Lonely Bull,” which the trumpet-playing entrepreneur recorded with the Tijuana Brass for his and Moss’ A&M; independent label. Alpert and Moss sold the booming label, home to such stars as Cat Stevens and Peter Frampton, about a decade ago to PolyGram for about $500 million. Seagram acquired A&M; as part of its $10.4-billion purchase of PolyGram in 1998.

Alpert and Moss filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit 18 months ago against Seagram when it folded A&M; into its Interscope division as part of a massive restructuring that the duo alleged had violated a clause in their contract with PolyGram. Sources said Alpert and Moss agreed to settle their legal dispute involving A&M; as part of its Rondor agreement with Universal.