"I'm not prepared right now to stop working," Clive Davis told reporters at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in March. "I hope each of you at the end of your contract have as many options as I have. Don't worry about me."

Clive Davis made good on his word Thursday when he made his expected announcement about his new venture with the Bertlesmann Music Group. After a highly publicized split with Arista Records, the label he founded and ran for twenty-five years, Davis will now helm J Records (named after Davis' middle initial), a fifty/fifty joint venture between Davis and BMG.

The financial specs of the deal were not revealed, but an AP report cites insiders as revealing a $150 million price tag on the agreement, an estimate drawn from the projected initial investment in talent and executive staff. Davis will serve as Chairman and CEO of J Records and a number of his Arista staffers will join him at the new label.

The label's first signees include Florida boy band O-town, and the label's first wave of releases are set for release in October. As for the Arista roster that Davis built -- including Santana, Whitney Houston , Sarah McLachlan and Deborah Cox -- it will not follow him to J. But Davis will still have some hands-on production duties on future projects by Houston, Cox and Santana. Davis will also work with his Arista successor L.A. Reid in a joint effort producing a new album by Monica.

Davis left Arista in July following a highly successful year of sales, which included Santana's Supernatural, an album he helped conceive.

ANDREW DANSBY(August 26, 2000)