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"Universal Music has reportedly proposed giving up its ownership of Parlophone, but keeping its rights to The Beatles, in order to get its planned purchase of EMI past European regulators. Universal confirmed its agreement to acquire the recorded music unit of British record label EMI in a \u00C2\u00A31.2bn deal back in November 2011.   The deal has caused controversy, with a number of UK-based independent record labels urging the government to stop the proposed sale. AIM, the trade body for Britain&amp;#039;s independent record companies, argued in January: &amp;quot;Market distortion must not be allowed to become even greater. If the sale of EMI is allowed to go through, the combined market share in the recorded music market would be around 50% - 10% more than the threshold at which the OFT should be involved.&amp;quot; Music Week reports that it has seen a leaked internal memo from EMI boss Roger Faxon which states that, in an attempt to get the European Commission to allow the deal, Universal has proposed giving up &amp;quot;in the UK, an entity composed of the rosters and catalogues of Parlophone (excluding The Beatles, both as a group and individually)&amp;quot;. The multinational music company has also apparently said that it will relinquish &amp;quot;Mute, Chrysalis (excluding the Robbie Williams catalogue) and Ensign[,]... the Pink Floyd catalogue and the recently concluded new deal with David Guetta, along with his catalogue... [but these] disposals only relate to exploitation of this repertoire within the EEA (European Economic Area)&amp;quot;.  It is expected that a final decision by the EU College of Commissioners will take place in the second half of September, with Faxon writing: &amp;quot;We could close the sale and EMI could pass to UMG as early as the end of September. However I think it is more realistic to plan for a close at the end of October.&amp;quot; Watch The Beatles singing &amp;#039;Can&amp;#039;t Buy Me Love&amp;#039; below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a395849/universal-to-drop-parlophone-but-keep-beatles-for-emi-deal/>