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Seagram in deal talks?
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March 3, 2000: 5:15 p.m. ET
CEO declines detail on talks, but says media groups must be open to deals
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Seagram's CEO said Friday that the spirits and entertainment company -- long rumored to be mulling its sale -- has held talks with other companies.
While addressing the Jupiter Communications' Consumer Online Forum in New York, CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. declined any discussion on the names of the parties or on the content of the talks.
Nor did he comment on the recent buzz regarding a potential merger between the Canadian-based Seagram and Rupert Murdoch's media company News Corp. (NWS: Research, Estimates).
"We have a long-standing policy of not commenting on specific rumors," he said. "I intend to be running our company for a very long time so I'm not going to set a precedent today that I won't appreciate years from now."
Seagram (VO: Research, Estimates), a $12 billion company with properties that include one of the world's biggest music companies and a film studio, stressed that the convergence of new technology with traditional businesses has compelled media companies to ponder deals that leverage their shared assets, a fact driven home by America Online's recent merger with Time Warner, Bronfman said.
"Lots of companies have had, and are having, lots of conversations with lots of other companies about how they can work together," he said. "We clearly want to be part of that world. We continue to have conversations with lots of companies to figure how we can advantage our business in the new world."
Deal rumored with News Corp.
Bronfman's comments come after months of speculation that the Montreal-based Seagram is poised to sell a piece, or perhaps all, of the company, in which the Bronfman family holds about a 24 percent stake.
Further grist for the rumor mill came on Wednesday when Newsweek magazine said Seagram has had talks about selling the company to News Corp. Others companies reportedly in the running for Seagram include: Barry Diller's USA Networks; French utilities and communications giant Vivendi; and AT&T.
But on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Bronfman Jr. told executives at his Universal Studios unit Wednesday that Seagram is not on the block, reportedly saying that, "The company is not for sale."
Shares of Seagram rose 6 percent on Friday, closing at 63-1/2, up 3-7/16, just short of its 52-week high of 65 a share.
Over the past 18 months, music companies have scrambled to develop strategies for distributing music over the Web, as the Internet is poised to fundamentally reshape the music business through online distribution.
The most recent example of this is Time Warner and EMI Group PLC's broad-ranging pact, announced in January, which folds EMI's music business and Warner Music into a $20 billion joint venture that challenges Seagram's Universal Music as the world's leading recording company.
Seagram is no stranger to mega-deals. Its $10.2 billion acquisition of the Dutch music and film company Polygram NV in December 1998, created at the time the world's No. 1 music company.
At the conference, Bronfman discussed the growth of music on the Internet, and predicted that it will be most important "traditional entertainment" product on the Web.
Jupiter Communications, a New York-based company that provides research on Internet commerce, hosted the conference.
During his presentation, Bronfman highlighted Seagram's new businesses -- Global e and e Labs - which were created to develop and distribute digital music. He said Global e plans to unveil in the spring a platform for secure digital distribution of music by Universal artists, which include Sting, Brian McKnight and Sheryl Crow. 
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