Edgar Bronfman, Jr. - Biography

Edgar Miles Bronfman, Jr. (born May 16, 1955), is the Chairman of Warner Music Group. He previously served as CEO of the company from 2004 to 2011. In May, 2011, the sale of WMG was announced; Bronfman would continued as CEO in the transaction. In August 2011, he became Chairman of the company as Stephen Cooper became CEO. Bronfman previously served as CEO of Seagram and vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal. He is the son of Edgar Miles Bronfman and the grandson of Samuel Bronfman, patriarch of one of the wealthiest and most influential Jewish families in Canada.

The Bronfman family gained its fortunes through the Seagram Company, an alcohol distilling company, but Edgar Jr. ("Efer" to friends) has gained his reputation by expanding and later divesting ownership of the Seagram Company, as well as for pursuing more creative activities as a Broadway and film producer and songwriter.

His controversial decision to sell his family stake in DuPont Chemical in order to create the Vivendi Universal entertainment company which turned out to be short-lived, was a source of widespread astonishment in the business community.

Bronfman was convicted of insider trading in a French court resulting in a 15 month suspended sentence and fined €5 million. [1]

Early life

Edgar Jr. is the second of five children. He was indicated by his grandfather in 1971 as being suitable as the heir to the Seagram Company.

From his early days, Bronfman's interest in the arts was apparent. He was particularly active in school theatre, an interest his parents supported by donating to construct The Ann and Edgar Bronfman Theatre during a 1967 expansion at The Collegiate School, the prestigious private school in Manhattan which Edgar Jr. attended. Edgar Jr. and his classmates created a documentary film of the school that spawned the Collegiate Film Festival, an event that gained positive press in The Los Angeles Times and The Village Voice.

In the summer before his junior year in high school, Bronfman went to London to work on a feature film, arranged partly through his father's connections at MGM.

Career

Bronfman proceeded to a brief career in entertainment in the 1970s as a film and Broadway producer. The summer before his final year of high school, in 1972, he was a credited producer on the film, The Blockhouse. Despite his inexperience, Bronfman's involvement was accepted because of his connections and access to financing through his family's wealth. In return, he learned many of the tricks of the trade by watching his more experienced peers.

In 1973, Bronfman began a songwriting career under the pseudonyms Junior Miles and Sam Roman. He often collaborated with [ Bruce Roberts] on songs like "Whisper in the Dark", which he gave to Dionne Warwick to record in thanks for introducing him to his first wife, Sherry.

His Efer Productions company was signed by Universal Studios in 1977 to a three-year movie production contract. He produced the unsuccessful film The Border, which starred Jack Nicholson.

In 1982, Bronfman returned to the Seagram Company, spending three months learning the ropes before moving to London to become managing director of Seagram Europe. In 1984, Bronfman returned to New York as President of the House of Seagram, the company's U.S. marketing division. By 1994 he became the Chief Executive Officer, where he began a move away from the traditional liquor business and into entertainment.

The first step in this diversification was the widely criticized sale of Seagram's stake in DuPont. In 1981, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., had sold Seagram's stake in Conoco to DuPont, in exchange for almost 25% of the chemical giant. This stake in DuPont, by 1995, represented about 70% of Seagram's total earnings. Nevertheless, Bronfman, Jr., acting as Seagram's CEO, approached DuPont about buying back its shares, a deal that DuPont wasted no time in closing.

With the proceeds of the $9 billion sale, Bronfman, Jr., went on an expansion into the entertainment business, in music through the acquisition of Polygram, and in film entertainment through MCA and Universal Pictures. However, the new entertainment conglomerate he created had a brief life, before needing a strategic partner. Bronfman, Jr., then led Seagram into a controversial all-stock acquisition by French conglomerate Vivendi in 2000. Bronfman, Jr., became chief of the new company, Vivendi Universal, but the Seagram company effectively lost control of its entertainment businesses. Meanwhile, the beverage division—the core of Seagram's business—was acquired by Pernod Ricard and Diageo. Seagram's for all intents and purposes ceased to exist.

In December 2001, Bronfman announced he was stepping down from an executive capacity at Vivendi Universal, but remaining as vice chair of the board.

On February 27, 2004, Bronfman finalized the acquisition of Warner Music Group and he has served as Chairman and CEO of the music company since that time. Bronfman has helped to transform WMG by rapidly growing the company's digital music sales, redefining the relationships it has with artists and diversifying its revenue streams through its expansion into growing areas of the music business WMG held an initial public offering of stock in 2005 (NYSE: WMG), and is now the only standalone major music company to be publicly traded. While the stock has fallen from a high in 2005 of over $30 per share, the company has nonetheless produced double-digit growth in its digital business, increased its market share and delivered stable revenue performance despite a drastic music industry decline during the same period. In 2008, The New York Times reported that WMG's Atlantic Records became the first major record label to generate more than half of its music sales in the U.S. from digital products.

In May, 2011, WMG and Bronfman announced the company's sale to Access Industries for US$3.3 billion cash. Access is controlled by Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, a former board member and still-substantial shareholder of WMG at the time of the purchase announcement. The sale, coming after a three-month bidding process, "serves the best interests of stockholders as well as the best interests of music fans, our recording artists and songwriters, and the wonderful people of this company," according to a statement released by Bronfman. CEO Bronfman would continue in his post in the transaction, though further job cuts were also foreseen. The investment group which has owned the company since 2004 was said to have received a positive return on its investment.

In August 2011, Bronfman became Chairman of Warner Music and Stephen Cooper became CEO.

Bronfman has continued to dabble in songwriting and penned the hit song "To Love You More", which was recorded by Celine Dion, and Barbra Streisand's "If I Didn't Love You".

He also currently chairs the Board of Directors of Endeavor, an international non-profit development organization that finds and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Personal life

Bronfman married his first wife, Sherry Brewer, an African-American actress, in 1979 in New Orleans. The couple had three children: Vanessa, Hannah, and Benjamin, before they divorced in 1991. Bronfman's father did not approve of the marriage. "I very much wanted for him to end the relationship, because I told him, all marriages are difficult enough without the added stress of totally different backgrounds", Bronfman Sr. wrote in his memoirs. "Sherry offered to convert [to Judaism], which though well intentioned, was not the point." Bronfman and Brewer eloped and he and his father remained estranged.

In 1993, Bronfman married Clarissa Alcock, the daughter of Frank Alcock, a Venezuelan oil executive of British descent. They have four children: Aaron, Bettina, Erik and Clarissa.

Bronfman's eldest son Benjamin is also known as Ben Brewer, a rock musician. Brewer was the guitar player and vocalist for the New York-based alternative rock band The Exit. He is engaged to Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, better known under the stage name of M.I.A.; they have a son, Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman, born on 11 February 2009.

On January 21, 2011, Bronfman was found guilty in French court of insider trading and received a 15-month suspended sentence and a €5m fine. Considering the jail sentences handed out to other executives for similar convictions, BNN reporter Michael Kane told CTV News "The fact that the judge suspended the jail time could be looked at as getting off lightly, perhaps." He has appealed the decision.

Music piracy

At the height of file sharing service Napster’s popularity, Bronfman was a leading opponent of the illegal use of peer-to-peer technology. As CEO of Universal, he helped lead the music industry's opposition to Napster, likening it to slavery and Soviet communism. As Chairman and CEO of WMG, Bronfman has championed the use of digital innovation and is recognized as a leader in the industry gradual but growing embrace of social media, including its work with Cisco to develop a social networking strategy of its own as well as investments and partnerships with digital music services such as Spotify, imeem, MySpace Music, Lala and we7. In 2006, WMG was the first major media company to create a business model around user-generated content and, more recently, has been pushing for ways to monetize the popularity of P2P networks on college campuses. In late 2006 in an interview with Reuters, Bronfman caused a stir by admitting that his children have pirated music. He claims to have punished the child, but wants the punishment to remain within the realm of the family. Lately, Bronfman may have revised his judgment. During the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress, he told the audience that mobile operators should not make the same mistakes that the music industry has:

In 2010 Bronfman changed his philosophy on the music industry's online business models, stating that he does not support free advertising supported models. He said that WMG will focus on promoting services that require payment, that will appeal to the population that already pays for downloads in stores such as iTunes.:

See also

• Bronfman family
• Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
• Samuel Bronfman

References and notes

• McQueen, Rod. The Icarus Factor: The Rise and Fall of Edgar Bronfman Jr., 2004. ISBN 0-385-65995-4
• Faith, Nicholas. The Bronfmans: The Rise and Fall of the House of Seagram, 2006. ISBN 0-312-33219-X

External links

• Edgar Bronfman, Jr.'s biography at WMG Corporate Site
• Official page for Bronfman's book about Judaism in America
• Speaking at Stanford
• "Edgar Bronfman Jr." at hollywood.com
• Milner, Brian. "The Unmaking of a Dynasty", Cigar Aficionado
• Plotz, David. "Edgar Bronfman, Edgar Bronfman: Overrated father, misunderstood son", Slate, 26 April 1998
• Edgar Bronfman, Jr. biography at Directors of Endeavor