CitiGroup is said to be closing two deals that will split EMI into two separate companies. According to the New York Times' sources, the financial services giant wants to close the deals by the end of the week and announce the sales simultaneously. The deal is expected to sell the company's recorded music division – which has the rights to the back catalogs of major artists including the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Radiohead – and its music publishing arm – which controls the copyrights of over 1.3 million songs – to different companies.

The identities of the companies close to purchasing the separate branches of EMI are not known, but Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes all placed bids for the respective divisions in CitiGroup's auction for EMI over the past four months.

Photos: Random Notes
EMI was purchased by Citigroup in February. The financial service conglomerate subsequently wrote down the company's debt by $3.5 billion before putting the label on the market in June.

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