Fox News' Roger Friedman has some info about a 2004 failed attempt to merger Warner Music Group and EMI. (read article here, scroll down.) The details have surfaced as exhibits in a lawsuit brought against WMG's Edgar Bronfman by Richard Snyder. Documents offer insight on a proposal for WMG's recorded music group and part of its publishing group. That letter, sent by EMI chairman Eric Nicoli on Feb 9, 2004, was sent to WMG and Scott Sperling of Thomas H. Lee Partners, the firm that financed Bronfman's acquisition of WMG from Time Warner.

Nicoli proposed a merger with WMG for $1.6 billion in cash and a structure with Bronfman as CEO of the "enlarged EMI group," Alain Levy as CEO of the music group and Martin Bandier as the CEO of the publishing group.

The thrust of the article is a belief that this merger should have gone through and that Bronfman missed a golden opportunity to save the industry. His opinion should not be taken too seriously; Friedman is not a business writer or analyst. He is a connected, gossipy entertainment journalist. ("There might be a record business now," he confidently wrote at the beginning of the piece.) "It's that simple," wrote Friedman. "All Nicoli asks is that his EMI executives remain in place through the new company." That simple? Maybe Friedman should look at the Sony BMG culture wars as a case study of muddy executive leadership when entertainment companies on opposite sides of the Atlantic merge.