EMI

Computers and CT scanner

The EMI Electronic Business Machine, a valve and magnetic drum memory computer, was built in the 1950s to process the British Motor Corporation payroll.

In 1958, the EMIDEC 1100, the UK's first commercially available all-transistor computer, was developed at EMI's Central Research Laboratories in Hayes under the leadership of Godfrey Hounsfield, an electrical engineer at EMI.

In the early 1970s, with financial support by the UK Department of Health and Social Security as well as EMI research investment, Hounsfield developed the first CT scanner, a device which revolutionised medical imaging. In 1973, EMI was awarded a prestigious Queen's Award for Technological Innovation for what was then called the EMI scanner; in 1979, Hounsfield won the Nobel Prize for his accomplishment.

After brief success in the medical imaging field, EMI's manufacturing activities were sold off to other companies, such as Thorn (see Thorn EMI). Subsequently, development and manufacturing activities were sold off to other companies and work relocated.

Emihus

Emihus Electronics, based in Glenrothes, Scotland, was owned 51% by Hughes Aircraft, of California, US, and 49% by EMI. It manufactured integrated circuits, electrolytic capacitors and, for a short period in the mid-1970s, hand-held calculators under the Gemini name.

Operations

Entertainment and leisure

In 1964, EMI acquired Blackpool Tower from the Bickerstaffe family. In 1967, it also took over the Winter Gardens complex in Blackpool.

In 1967, EMI acquired the Grade Organisation, the UK's largest showbusiness talent agency, for £7.5 million. This also included the recently acquired Shipman and King chain of 32 cinemas in the Home Counties.

Film, theatre and television

EMI Films was created in 1969 following the acquisition of Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). At the time ABPC owned 270 ABC Cinemas; a half share (under the Associated British Corporation name) in the ITV contractor Thames Television; Elstree Studios at Shenley Road, and had recently bought Anglo-Amalgamated, a film studio. Bernard Delfont of the Grade Organisation became chairman and Chief Executive. In 1970, Delfont sold his own Bernard Delfont Organisation to EMI and the agencies were divested. He later became Chief Executive of EMI in 1979.

Their flagship cinema was the ABC 1 and 2 Shaftesbury Avenue which was built at the old Saville Theatre in London.

In 1974, the Film & Theatre Corporation was split into EMI Cinemas and EMI Leisure Enterprises. On formation, EMI Cinemas ran 272 cinemas in the UK, including those of ABC.

Following EMI's merger with Thorn Electrical Industries in 1979, EMI's film division was renamed Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. In April 1986, Thorn EMI sold its film production and distribution arm (Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment), home video (Thorn EMI Video), and cinema (ABC Cinemas) operations to businessman Alan Bond. Bond, in turn, sold it to The Cannon Group a week later.

EMI Leisure

EMI Leisure Enterprises was formed in April 1974 and controlled Blackpool Tower; EMI's 16 squash clubs and five bowling alleys; discotheques; 23 licensed premises and other amusement interests. It began developing new leisure businesses, including Brighton Marina and golf activities with the opening of Aldenham Golf Club. In April 1977 it acquired the Empire Ballroom and Cinema in Leicester Square in London and in September 1977 acquired Bailey Leisure Services Limited which it renamed EMI Dancing which provided the group with dance halls, cabaret clubs and discotheques around the UK. By the late 1970s, the leisure business contributed 15% of group revenues. In 1978, EMI acquired the Prince Edward Theatre. It also owned two other theatres in London as well as theatres in the rest of the UK.

Following the merger with Thorn, part of EMI's leisure interests were sold to Trust House Forte in November 1980 for £16 million. Lord Delfont became chairman and chief executive of THF's leisure division. EMI Social Centres chain of bingo halls remained with Thorn EMI.

The Winter Gardens in Blackpool were sold in 1983 to First Leisure.

Hotels and restaurants

In 1972, EMI Hotels won a bidding war against Ralston Purina to buy the Golden Egg group from the Kaye brothers for £14 million, which included a stake in Angus Steakhouse restaurants and the Selfridge Hotel, which opened in July 1973.

In June 1977, EMI acquired the Tower Hotel, London. At the end of 1978, they owned four other hotels: Royal Horseguards Hotel; Royal Angus; Royal Trafalgar; and Royal Westminster.

As well as Angus Steakhouse, their restaurants also included Wimpy Bars, Picnic Basket and Tennessee Pancake Houses.

Following the merger with Thorn, seven hotels and 12 Angus Steakhouse restaurants were sold in July 1980 for £23 million to Scottish & Newcastle Breweries.

EMI Music Publishing

As well as the well-known record label the group also owned EMI Music Publishing, which was the largest music publisher in the world. EMI Music Publishing has won the Music Week Award for Publisher of the Year every year for over 10 years; in 2009, for the first time in history the award was shared jointly with Universal Music Publishing. The publishing arm and record label are separate businesses.

EMI administered the publishing rights of over 1.3 million songs, headlined by Queen, Carole King, The Police, the Motown catalog, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Drake, Sia, P!nk, Pharrell Williams, and Calvin Harris.

EMI's music publishing operations were sold to a consortium led by Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2012; BMG acquired the music publishing libraries of Virgin Music (which EMI held) and Famous Music UK (which Sony/ATV held).

Apple Records, the record label representing the Beatles, launched a suit against EMI for non-payment of royalties on 15 December 2005. The suit alleged that EMI had withheld $50 million from the record label; however, an EMI spokesman noted that audits of record label accounts are not that unusual, confirming at least two hundred such audits performed on the label, but that these audits rarely result in legal action. A legal settlement was announced on 12 April 2007 and terms were undisclosed.

On 2 April 2007, EMI announced it would be releasing its music in DRM-free formats. These were to be issued in AAC format, which gave higher quality for the same bitrate compared with the ubiquitous MP3 format. The music would be distributed via Apple's iTunes Store (under the iTunes Plus category).

Tracks were to cost $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. Legacy tracks with FairPlay DRM would still be available for $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 – albeit with lower quality sound and DRM restrictions still in place. Users would be able to 'upgrade' the EMI tracks that they had already bought for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20. Albums were also to be available at the same price as their lower quality, DRM counterparts and music videos from EMI would also be DRM-free. The higher-quality, DRM-free files became available worldwide on iTunes on 30 May 2007, and were expected to appear on other music download services soon thereafter.

Following this decision, Universal Music Group also announced sales of DRM-free music (which was described as an experiment).

In May 2006, EMI attempted to buy Warner Music Group, which would have reduced the world's four largest record companies (Big Four) to three; however, the bid was rejected. Warner Music Group launched a Pac-Man defense, offering to buy EMI. EMI rejected the $4.6 billion offer.

Terra Firma takeover

After a decline in the British market share from 16% to 9%, and the announcement that it had sustained a loss of £260 million in 2006/2007, in August 2007 EMI was acquired by Terra Firma Capital Partners for £4.2 billion. Following the transition, several artists including Radiohead left EMI, while other artists such as Paul McCartney had left ahead of the takeover. At the same time, the Rolling Stones signed a one-album deal with Interscope Records/Universal Music Group outside its contract with EMI, which expired in February 2008, and then in July 2008 signed a new long-term deal with Universal Music Group. The Terra Firma takeover was also reported to have been the catalyst behind a lawsuit filed by Pink Floyd over unpaid royalties. In January 2011 Pink Floyd signed a new global agreement with EMI.

Around the same time, Guy Hands, CEO of Terra Firma Capital Partners, came to EMI with restructuring plans to cut between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs and to reduce costs by £200 million a year. As a result, the UK chief executive Tony Wadsworth left EMI after 25 years in January 2008. The cuts were planned to take effect over the year 2008, and would affect up to a third of EMI's 5,500 staff. Thirty Seconds to Mars tried to exit their contract with EMI following the layoff of its staff and due to unpaid royalties, prompting the label to file a lawsuit for $30 million citing breach of contract. The suit was later settled following a defence based on a contract case involving actress Olivia de Havilland decades before. Jared Leto explained, "The California Appeals Court ruled that no service contract in California is valid after seven years, and it became known as the De Havilland Law after she used it to get out of her contract with Warner Bros." Many industry watchers viewed the suit as a punitive harassment meant to scare other musicians. The band's troubles with the label resonate through their third studio album This Is War (2009) and were the subject of the 2012 documentary Artifact.

In 2008, EMI withdrew from the South-East Asian market entirely, forcing its large roster of acts to search out contracts with other unaffiliated labels. As a result, the South-East Asian market was the only region in the world where EMI was not in operation, although the record label continued to operate in Hong Kong and Indonesia (which was named Arka Music Indonesia). The Chinese and Taiwanese operation of EMI as well as the Hong Kong branch of Gold Label, was sold to Typhoon Group and reformed as Gold Typhoon. The Philippine branch of EMI changed its name to PolyEast Records, and was a joint venture between EMI itself and Pied Piper Records Corporation. The physical audio and video products of the label have been distributed in South-East Asia by Warner Music Group since December 2008, while new EMI releases in China and Taiwan, were distributed under Gold Typhoon which was previously known as EMI Music China and EMI Music Taiwan, respectively. Meanwhile, the Korean branch of EMI (known as EMI Korea Limited) had its physical releases distributed by Warner Music Korea. EMI Music Japan, the Japanese EMI branch, remains unchanged from the reflection of Toshiba's divestiture to the business by EMI buying the whole branch way back July 2007, making it a full subsidiary.

In July 2009, there were reports that EMI would not sell CDs to independent album retailers in a bid to cut costs, but in fact only a handful of small physical retailers were affected.