EMI annual earnings

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH… Compare the above with EMI’s performance for the fiscal year ending March 31, released a day earlier. The company reported a $546 million pre-tax loss on slightly increased gross revenues of $2.3 billion revenues, and because much of the loss came from tax write-downs, Roger Faxon spun the loss as "just an accounting issue," and hailed the overall results as an "incredibly strong performance...set against the backdrop of a challenging state of the music market and wider economic conditions." The current EMI chief made these statements in his latest memo to staff, obtained by The Guardian and picked up by Hypebot. The $582 million write-down of the value of the company’s two divisions was made after Citi seized control from Guy Hands. Indeed, EMI's operating profit before the write-off actually rose to $208 million from $107 million last year. "These results are a demonstration of the success of how our strategy has really helped us to enhance the way we connect our artists and writers with a worldwide audience," Faxon wrote "This isn't a success story that you're seeing at other music companies. It's our job to make sure that these businesses are ideally positioned for the next stage of their storied histories under new ownership." The report also contained the info that total staff costs were $419.8 million, with $342.1 million of that figure going to wages. At the end of the fiscal year, EMI Music carried a workforce of 2,649, while EMI Music Publishing had 557 staffers. (8/9a)