The Universal Music Group has chosen its first major executive appointment since taking control of EMI, and it is a blow to Universal's biggest rival, Sony.
Steve Barnett, one of two chairmen of Columbia, which is owned by Sony, is in advanced negotiations with Universal to take over as chairman of EMI's labels in the United States, according to two people briefed on the talks who were not authorized to speak about them.
These talks are still in progress, these people said, although according to one of them, Mr. Barnett has already resigned from Sony. A Universal spokesman declined to comment, and a Columbia spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about Mr. Barnett.
At EMI, Mr. Barnett would most likely hold the title of chairman of the Capitol Records Group, with authority over EMI's American labels, including Capitol, Virgin and Blue Note.
Mr. Barnett, who start ed as an artist manager - among his clients were AC/DC - had been with Sony since he joined its Epic label in 1996. At Columbia, Mr. Barnett was head of operations, while Rob Stringer, the other chairman, was the label's top creative force.
Universal, the biggest of the major labels, paid $1.9 billion for EMI, whose many acts include the Beatles, Katy Perry and Norah Jones. But European regulators demanded that Universal sell about a third of EMI's holdings, including the majority of its assets in Europe and the worldwide rights to release music by some of the label's biggest acts, including Coldplay. That auction will be run by Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Barnett's move to EMI is the highest-level defection from Sony since Barry Weiss, who had been chairman of Sony's RCA/Jive group, joined Universal in early 2011 as its top-ranking executive on the East Coast. But Mr. Weiss was part of a trade, with Doug Morris, the former Universal executive, taking over Sony Music.
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