Mike Gentile ([email protected])
Fri, 22 Jan 1999 11:08:06 PST
from BASELINE Inc. and The Hollywood Reporter
Long list of executives let go in industry's biggest restructuring
By Marc Pollack
The biggest corporate restructuring in the history of the music
industry
officially began Wednesday and will continue today, with Seagram's
Universal
Music Group firing nearly 500 employees in the United States and letting
250
artists go.
Universal Music Group, now the world's largest music company since
acquiring PolyGram for $10.4 billion last month, is not expected to
complete
the entire restructuring -- involving a potential 3,000 pink slips in
total
-- until at least July. Under Seagram Co. president and CEO Edgar
Bronfman
Jr.'s mandate, Universal Music chiefs were told to produce a $300
million
savings annually by eliminating redundancies.
Sources said contractual executives at Mercury and Island on the East
Coast were let go Wednesday and more than 100 employees from both
companies
will be let go by the end of today.
Among Mercury's top personnel, sources said general manager and
executive
vp David Leach will be one of the few executives likely to stay on.
Steve
Greenberg, head of A&R, will also stay on board. Mercury Group chairman
Danny
Goldberg has already left.
Leach is expected to take on the role of senior vp promotion for the
Mercury-Island-Def Jam Group, UMG's new New York-based unit formed by
the
combination of the three former PolyGram labels. That unit is being run
by
Jim Caparro and John Reid, and is expected to be filled out by 15-20
former
PolyGram Distribution Group executives who worked with Caparro, the
former
head of the distribution company.
Sources said Mercury department heads who have exited include veteran
Jeff
Brody (senior vp sales), Marty Maidenberg (senior vp marketing and
artist
development), Annette Mitchell (vp video production), Dave Lory (vp
international), Michael Krumper (senior vp marketing) and 25-year
veteran Bas
Hartong, a senior vp. Others who have been let go include Mike Maska (vp
marketing), David Silver (vp A&R) and Alison Hamamura, senior vp and
general
manager West Coast.
Meanwhile at Island, senior vp promotions Joe Riccitelli has left, as
has
Andrew Lewis, the head of business affairs. Marketing head Daniel Savage
has
been asked to remain on in an interim basis.
Johnny Barbis, president of Island Records, will remain on in an
unspecified role, sources said, while Island chairman Davitt Sigerson
has
already stepped down. The fate of Hiram Hicks, Island's president of
black
music, is still unresolved, sources said.
The third label in the group, Def Jam, will remain unscathed as
Universal
only owns 60% of the company. While UMG is looking into purchasing the
remaining 40%, sources said founder Russell Simmons needs to lower the
label's asking price before such a deal could be made.
The once-mighty Motown Records, which is being folded under the
Universal
Records umbrella, will reduce its staff from 75 to just seven employees,
sources said. But that number too, will likely be rebuilt under Kedar
Massenburg, sources said, who will also be peppering the Motown roster
with
such acts as Erykah Badu and Chico DeBarges. Sources said that top
sellers
Boyz II Men will leave Motown and now record for sister label Universal
Records.
Meanwhile, the position of industry legend Clarence Avant, Motown's
chairman of the board, has yet to be determined.
On the West Coast, the merger of Geffen, A&M and Interscope will see
massive restructuring as both employees and acts are cut.
At A&M on Wednesday, the senior executive staff with contracts were
told
who was staying and who was going. After today, just 30 of the
200-person
work force will remain. Among those staying on are Martin Kierszenbaum,
vp
international, as will most of his department. Richard Gallo, senior vp
sales, will move over to catalog. The fate of senior executive John
McClain
is undetermined, sources said.
Among those leaving with chairman Al Cafaro are David Anderly (senior
vp
A&R) and Jeri Heiden (senior vp creative services) among others.
At Geffen, all but one department head will be leaving, along with
company
chairman Eddie Rosenblatt and president Bill Bennett, sources said. The
company's staff will also be trimmed down to about 30 employees from
145.
Peter Baron, video head at Geffen, moves to head of video promotion
and
production at Interscope, sources said.
Department heads expected to leave include David Simone (A&R), Bob
Catania
(promotion), Jason Whittington (sales) and Robert Smith (marketing).
Bryn
Bridenthal (publicity) and Mel Posner (international) are expected to
make
the transition to DreamWorks, source said.
MCA Records employees and artists will remain relatively unscathed in
the
restructuring.
Over the coming months, UMG is expected to make cuts in publishing,
international and other areas. The company is also giving a three- to
six-
month time limit on when recording acts will be notified of their place
in
the mix.
A Universal Music Group spokesman declined to comment.
For those fired, the severance package includes 3.75 weeks of pay for
each
year of service.
copyright 1999 The Hollywood Reporter and BASELINE Inc.
-0- (BEN) Jan/21/ 99 14:03
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