The Daily Swarm

Times UK: Hands in challenge to the music industry:

GUY HANDS is throwing down the gauntlet to the rest of the music industry to match his much-criticised turnround plan for EMI.

“I would like to be as big as the big three [music groups] and bigger,” he said, after visiting EMI staff in New York and Nashville to explain his scheme to strip out £200m of costs and reengage with music-buying consumers.

“We have a sensible plan to survive. The other labels need to have a plan to do that. They haven’t put anything forward yet. I would hate to find that we are the largest simply because the others have died.”

That seems unlikely for some time because Universal dwarfs EMI, particularly on its home British turf, where it has been losing market share. Hands’s Terra Firma is also fighting a rear-guard action to hold on to top-selling artists such as the Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams.

Telegraph: Guy Hands: EMI must dump artists to survive:

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the new owner reiterates the point: “About a third of the artists who sign with EMI never make an album,” he says. “We’re going to drop a fair number of them. You’ve got to get them to a level where you can provide a super service.”

Hands’s operations are usually only reported in the business pages, but the intoxicating mix of big money, outraged superstars and internecine warfare has guaranteed him front page headlines.

When he presented his job-cutting proposals to employees this week, he was surrounded by minders to protect him from the paparazzi. Terra Firma finds itself cast as a villainous asset-stripper, ram-raiding the family jewels and crushing delicate artistes underfoot.

But when the smoke clears, it has to be acknowledged that Hands has faced the facts that EMI had tried to hide from.

FT: Man in the news: Guy Hands:

“He is a tough negotiator and has a hell of a temper,” says a senior banker who has worked closely with him. “He can blow hot and cold really quickly.”

Mr Hands has an impatient manner, interrupting meetings to answer calls about other deals. Someone who has seen him work says: “He rules Terra Firma with a rod of iron, so no one else speaks in negotiations, even if he is accompanied by a team of people, which is unusual in private equity.” Mr Hands describes his leadership style as “blunt, direct and not very tactful”.