Wowzas…

PARIS, July 13 — In a rare move that plunged music industry giants into confusion, a European Union court today threw out the approval of the two-year-old merger that created Sony BMG, issuing blunt criticism of the regulators who endorsed the union…
Shareholders reacted with alarmtoday. Warner’s shares were down $4.68, or 15.7 percent, to $25.08 in late New York trading, while EMI Group’s shares declined 28.25 pence, or 9.2 percent, to close at 277.75 pence, or $5.11, in London…
Essentially, the court concluded that the commission had failed to demonstrate the legal standard that a combined Sony BMG would not develop into a monopoly position in the music industry…
The immediate reaction from the music companies came in choreographed and terse statements. “Today’s judgment does not affect the validity of the Sony BMG joint venture,” insisted the parent companies in the combination, Bertelsmann and Sony, which added in their joint statement that “we are studying the judgment carefully.”
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Seriously interesting. We all know about Sony’s major blunder with the rootkit Digital Right’s Management scandale, so another hand slapping for them could (and I think should) be a serious blow to these feudal warlords of the music industry. If not a blow, then another opportunity for the entire music industry to have a long hard evaluatory look at their slowely deminishing role in today’s music industry. Sony naturally need to look at their changing role in almost everything they have a hand in.