Alec Gores, Warners and Universal Music are all believed to be considering bids for EMI. Is this good news for the troubled major? Well, it certainly helps to have more than one suitor in any negotiation. The likelihood of impending scarcity tends to make something more attractive to buyers, and so they may be more likely to pay more for it than if they had a clear field and they were the only buyer.

In this case it will be interesting to see who emerges as potential purchasers. If this article (businessweek.com) is right about the identity of the potential bidders, then Warners and Universal may have one disadvantage compared to Alec Gores, which is that both of them would have regulatory hurdles to clear (probably a substantial one in the case of Universal). This would not apply in the case of the Gores bid. Having “law” or “regulations” on your side is an important source of bargaining power and it could work particularly well in this case, if Citigroup want and need a speedy sale. If that’s true then Gores would be like an unencumbered purchaser competing for a house sale, with less process and approvals to get through – always an attractive option for a vendor.

Whether that means Gores could make a success of EMI is another question. Warners and Universal could both release instant savings from merging EMI with their own companies, so they would be able to buy themselves some time before they were judged on their expertise in running the combined companies. Gores might not have that luxury. Could he run a company like EMI successfully on its own, given his expertise in leveraged buyouts? We all know what happened to the last man with no previous background in music who bought EMI thinking he could do that…