Well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad...


Thomas Mottola Resigns as Sony Music Head
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By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Record mogul Thomas Mottola, who helped guide the careers of veteran acts like Bob Dylan (news) and Bruce Springsteen (news) while overseeing the rise of Jennifer Lopez (news) and ex-wife Mariah Carey, resigned on Thursday as chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment to start his own label.



Mottola's contract with Sony had been set to run for another two years, but rumors of his departure had circulated following a reported fallout over his contract renewal amid a prolonged slump in the music industry.


Mottola reportedly had earned $7 million a year plus a percentage of Sony Music's revenue.


His exit comes after a turbulent year punctuated by the settlement of a bitter contract dispute with the Dixie Chicks, leading to release of their hit album and Sony's biggest commercial success, "Home," and a highly publicized rift between Sony and pop star Michael Jackson (news). Mottolla, 52, spent much of the past several months preparing Sony Music for an overhaul that he envisioned would take the label into the talent management business. He recently announced a promotional venture with Pepsi, a marketing deal between Celine Dion (news) and Chrysler and the acquisition of veteran rock band AC/DC's catalog.


The recording industry veteran, who signed Carey and then married her, will resign his posts, effective immediately, to launch a new venture to be formed in partnership with Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corp (news - web sites)., the company said.


Mottola, now divorced from Carey and married to Latin recording artist Thalia, was highly regarded as a talent spotter who ran his division at Sony with a tight-knit circle of hand-picked executives.


"I have been thinking about taking up this new challenge for about a year, and really made the decision to go forward only recently," Mottola said in a statement.


Sony said it expected to name a successor within the next few days.


Potential candidates cited by industry sources included Bob Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner Inc. , and Warren Lieberfarb, former president for AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros. home video. Daily Variety reported another possible successor was Doug Morris, chairman and CEO of recording rival Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal .


Sony, which ranks third in the U.S. music market behind Universal and Bertelsmann, incurred operating losses exceeding $100 million in the past year. Earlier Thursday, Bertelsmann's RCA Music cut about 50 people from its staff.


HELPED LAUNCH STARS


Mottola helped revive Dylan's career in 1997 with key support for the Grammy-winning "Time Out of Mind" and brought Dion and Barbra Streisand (news) together the same year for a Christmas duet on an album that became a big hit.


Mottola also scored a coup when he bought rights to the soundtrack to the hit film "Titanic," which became the hottest-selling soundtrack of the decade.


But perhaps his greatest single success at Sony was Mariah Carey. According to music industry legend, Mottola listened to Carey's demo tape in his limo on the way home from a party and was so taken by it, that he doubled back to track her down.


Mottola's stormy relationship with another icon, Michael Jackson, also grabbed headlines last year when the self-described "King of Pop" denounced Mottola as "racist" and "devilish." Sony responded at the time with a statement saying it was "deeply offended by the outrageous comments."


Mottola first joined CBS records in 1988 at age 37 as president and a year later was named president of Sony. He was named president and chief operating officer of Sony Music in 1993 and chairman and chief executive in 1998.

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Hmmm, with the industry down, is this the best time 2 start a new label... and is that what is really needed?

Another label 2 spew out more crappy Top40 shit?

WTF??? they're going to try to revamp Sony with the people who brought down Time Warner? fucking geniuses.

In Corperate World He was Let Go Today but it's been like 3 Years.the Cat has been riding on Catelog with Artists&Pulling a Tony Soprano or some Godfather type of Shit.He didn't make it too "DON' Status though.

MJ IS NOT THE *SELF DESCRIBED* KING OF POP!!!
fuck the media cant wait can they!

Liz Taylor called him that at an awards thingo back in 1991!

get over it already!

now there's a story on Fox News that when Mottola showed up for work, they told him he was resigning...

Mottola Leaves Sony Music

The 14-year reign of Tommy Mottola at Sony Music is over.

According to sources at Sony Music, where the phones have not stopped ringing, Mottola only found out he was leaving when he arrived this morning at 550 Madison. "He was told to go see Sir Howard Stringer, and when he got there they handed him a press release," my source said. Mottola was then given a couple of hours to clear out his office. A deal for a record label was, according to sources, Sony's resolution of the last year of his contract.

Also swirling around 550 Madison: the news that Epic Records' beloved chief Dave Glew will retire, and that veteran Columbia Records exec Mel Ilberman will as well. Now the big question is who will replace Mottola, and speculation is already pointing toward Bob Bowlin, already part of the Sony corporate structure and a friend of Stringer and Kevin Kelleher, will assume Mottola's duties. Another rumor has it that former Warner Bros. Home Video head Warren Lieberfarb, who left his own post suddenly last month with no explanation despite much success, may be headed for the job.

Earlier it was reported that Mottola resigned this afternoon as CEO, although it is more true to say that Sony refused to give in to his contract demands. His contract was said to be ending in 2004.

The Japanese owners of Sony had a lot on their minds when it came to Mottola's future. The talented but volatile music executive personally forced out two of Sony's major stars, Mariah Carey (his ex-wife) and Michael Jackson. In the case of the former, the embarrassing story of Mottola allegedly stealing music from Carey's Glitter album and passing it to Jennifer Lopez didn't help much. Carey was able to use that information as leverage to leave her Sony contract one album early.

In the case of Jackson, the complicated goings-on regarding his finances and the Beatles catalog culminated last summer in Jackson riding around Manhattan with a megaphone calling Mottola a racist. If there's one thing companies like Sony don't like, it's public humiliation. And Stringer, who runs Sony Entertainment, and is a class act, was never amused by Mottola's antics.

There was also the very public fight over royalties with the Dixie Chicks, and the company's inability to make Celine Dion's recent album more than a middling hit.

But in the end, Mottola's ouster is more a result of bottom line numbers. Sony Music is No. 3 on the list of music companies and Columbia Records is third on the list of labels. The failure of the company to market albums by Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and other acts sent their bottom line into a tailspin, and in the end it doesn't matter who likes you or who you don't like. It's about the money.

Of course, Mottola's hot temper didn't help. If you fell out of favor or seemed to be disloyal, bada bing — security guards escorted you to the door. With Mottola gone, there will now be rampant speculation about the future of his group including Don Ienner, Polly Anthony and most especially Michelle Anthony (the two are not related). There are going to be massive changes at Sony. One can only wonder if they'll end with the return of Michael Jackson. Stranger things have happened.

And what of Mottola? He'll start his own label, he has zillions of dollars, and still strikes fear into the hearts of strangers. He has always had a percentage interest in his own management company and that will be a place from which he can draw talent. I'll say this for him: for a long time, longer than most, Tommy Mottola made Sony/Columbia and the record business really interesting. Even when he was tough or seemed out of control, he was kind of brilliant. And he loved the music. That's not a bad legacy.
[This message was edited Fri Jan 10 8:29:39 PST 2003 by twonabomber]

twonabomber said:

well...there will always be squabbles over royalties. as for the Celine Dion thing...you can polish a turd, but it's still a turd. applied to Invincible as well...

Joshy84au said:

maybe she did. but she's not the one that sent faxes to MTV insisting that they call him that.