Live Nation Puts In Bid For Warner Recorded Music

11:40 PM PDT 3/31/2011 by Ed Christman, Ray Waddell

The concert and ticketing company's offer comes after it largely abandoned plans to compete with record labels by signing superstar artists like Madonna and Jay-Z.

Live Nation, the concert and ticketing company, has put in a bid for the Warner Music Group. The emergence of Live Nation as one of the bidders for the Warner Music Group brings to three the number of strategic players involved in the auction. But unlike the other two strategic suitors, Sony Music Entertainment and BMG Chrysalis, Live Nation has only bid on WMG's recorded music operations, according to sources who spoke with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post; the bid has been confirmed by Billboard.biz.