Race to sell between WMG, Citi

THE GREAT RACE: In this morning’s N.Y. Post, media reporter Claire Atkinson echoed the points made by our own I.B. Bad in his latest column. Warner Music, she writes, is pushing ahead with a sale in a bid to beat EMI to the punch. Warner, hoping to get its sale in place before EMI’s recorded music and publishing assets are formally put on the block, is asking bidders to submit first-round bids for all or part of its own business by the end of the month, attracting more than 20 interested parties, according to Atkinson’s sources. Among these tire kickers are Zomba founder Clive Calder and Russian investor Leonard Blavatnik, as well as private equity firms Apollo and Providence Equity—which already has an investmernt in WMG. They join the previously identified UMG, Sony, BMG/KKR and Netherlands-based music publishing giant Imagem. (2/11a)