Robert S. Wiesenthal
Rob Wiesenthal | |
---|---|
Born | June 22, 1966 |
Residence | New York City, New York |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Rochester (B.A.) |
Title | COO of Warner Music Group |
Board member of | Jawbone[1] |
Spouse(s) | Linnea Conrad (divorced) |
Children | 2 |
Robert (Rob) S. Wiesenthal (born June 22, 1966) is an American businessman.
Until June 2012, Wiesenthal was Executive Vice president and Chief Financial Officer of Sony Corporation of America, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, Sony Entertainment Inc., and Group Executive, Sony Corporation, leading corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions. From 2012 to June 2015, he was Chief Operating Officer of Warner Music Group.[2] Wiesenthal now heads Blade, an aviation start-up.[3]
Early life
Wiesenthal was raised in Manhattan, New York City, and shared a love of gadgets and entertainment with his father, Richard, who sold “I Love Lucy” reruns for Telepictures in Latin America. His mother, Ellen, was a florist. He studied robotics in his spare time, and co-wrote a book for Ziff-Davis on personal computers when he was in high school.[4] Wiesenthal graduated from the University of Rochester, receiving a B.A. degree cum laude in Political Science in 1988.
Business career
Prior to Sony
Early in his career, Bruce Wasserstein hired Wiesenthal as a junior investment banker at First Boston after he had fixed Wasserstein’s printer, where at the time he was a summer intern providing technical support. “I fixed the right guy’s printer,” he said.[5][6]
At First Boston, he was a member of its Mergers & Acquisitions group, beginning in 1986, later joining their Media group in 1993. He was named Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston (or CSFB) in 1999 and headed its entertainment and digital media efforts under Frank Quattrone. He had also been a strategic advisor to Sony Corp. of America since 1995.
As one of CSFB’s lead media bankers, notable transactions on which he was an advisor included Seagram’s $5.7 billion acquisition of MCA Inc., Liberty Media’s merger with TCI, News Corp’s $3.2 billion purchase of New World Communications and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.’s acquisition of Telemundo, the nation’s second largest Spanish television network. In the digital media sector, he was involved in Polo Ralph Lauren’s e-commerce joint venture with NBC and IAC’s acquisition of Precision Response Corp.
Sony
On June 27, 2000, Sir Howard Stringer, Sony Corp.’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, hired him as Chief Strategic Officer for Sony Broadband Entertainment , a move described in Fortune as one of Stringer’s “smartest moves”.[7] Sony Broadband Entertainment (now known as Sony Entertainment) was established in March 2000 to house the corporation’s U.S. entertainment assets, its film and television studio and music group.
Wiesenthal moved quickly to buy and sell stakes in a variety of businesses; in 2001, he sold 50 percent of Sony’s Game Show Network to Liberty Digital, and Sony’s stake in Telemundo to NBCUniversal, a deal worth over $2 billion. He had Sony join with Philips N.V. to buy InterTrust Technologies, the owner of patents for most digital-rights-management technologies. He negotiated “strategic transactions” between Sony and Yahoo Inc. and then-AOL Time Warner Inc. At Sony Pictures Entertainment, he oversaw a corporate restructuring called “the 21st Century Studio Project,” that resulted in savings of over $150 million at Sony’s studio operations. Among the biggest changes was at Sony Pictures’ U.S. network television production, where he greatly reduced the number of television series it produced. Wiesenthal told the New York Times, “We asked ourselves the tough questions in each of Sony Pictures’ businesses to ensure the underlying economics made sense in the current environment.”[8]
On January 16, 2002, Wiesenthal was promoted to Sony’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, a move that the Wall Street Journal described as a strategy that Sony used to improve its stature in the business world. In April 2003, he was named to a seven-member committee of executives to oversee the operations of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In June, 2005, after Stringer was promoted to Chief Executive of Sony Corporation, he gave Wiesenthal the additional responsibility of head of corporate development and mergers and acquisitions for Sony Corporation. During his tenure, Wiesenthal oversaw all financial aspects of Sony Corporation of America across its operating companies, including budget setting, long range planning, capital, and financing decisions. He was also responsible for Sony’s U.S. Investor Relations activities. He was a member of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Operating Committee and was on the Boards of Directors of Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.
In late 2005, after being given responsibility for Sony’s Music publishing joint venture, Sony/ATV, Wiesenthal sent a fax to Michael Jackson knowing that the pop singer (who died June 25, 2009) was about to default on a loan secured by his stake in the venture and offered to discuss ways to help:. Sony didn’t want Jackson’s half of Sony/ATV to wind up in bankruptcy court. Wiesenthal traveled to the Middle East and met Jackson in a gilded Dubai hotel room he told Jackson that Sony had backers from Citi who were willing to refinance Jackson’s ATV debt on much better terms. In exchange: Sony obtained greater operational control over the business, a right of refusal on his stake, and an option to buy half of Jackson’s half for approximately $250 million.[9] These moves helped consolidate Sony’s control of the unit.[10]
After obtaining greater authority over the operations of Sony/ATV, Wiesenthal led Sony/ATV’s acquisitions of the Leiber Stoller and Viacom’s Famous Music catalogs in 2007. In 2007, in an effort to bolster the management strength of Sony’s publishing operations, Wiesenthal recruited Martin Bandier, chairman and co-chief executive of EMI Group’s EMI Music Publishing unit, to be chief executive of Sony/ATV. Wiesenthal believes music publishing companies are well equipped to compete and be successful in the music industry of the future. Unlike traditional record companies, they don’t have manufacturing sales, distribution, or expensive label structures. And their model is completely based on licensing rights across all users and media.[11] “Lenders—whether private lenders or banks—feel much more comfortable with the credit quality of publishing vs. recorded music,” Wiesenthal said. “In terms of the banks I speak with, there’s clearly an interest on the publishing side.”[12]
In 2008, Wiesenthal and his corporate development team enabled Sony to be the first company to transmit a feature film directly to internet-connected televisions that were not covered by conventional cable and satellite distributors. They offered the film Hancock, featuring Will Smith, for a fee to customers with Sony's internet-connected televisions, prior to the film’s availability on DVD. At the time, laptops and PC’s were largely the only method in which customers could view digital streams of feature content. Wiesenthal said at the time, “At the end of the day, (this project) is about bringing digital entertainment back into the living room.”[13] Wiesenthal followed this project with a similar early release of the animated children’s film “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” These initiatives provided owners of Sony’s networked televisions with unique opportunities to watch early offerings of exclusive feature films they could not see over any competing television manufacturer’s sets as they were not available on DVD or pay-per-view.
Also in 2008, he led the transaction to buy Bertelsmann out of its half of Sony BMG, ending a joint venture formed in 2004. Stringer said the "new Sony Music would give the group ‘far more flexibility’ to use music in its film and television units, and in electronics, including the Play-Station".[14] In a business known for oversized egos, Wiesenthal is described by industry executives as an exception; Nancy Peretsman of Allen & Co. described him as "relatively egoless" and "always focused on the outcome". In his role at Sony Entertainment, he also oversaw Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which was established in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony and trusts formed by Michael Jackson. After separating music publishing from Sony’s music assets after the merger of Sony Music and BMG’s Music Group, Howard Stringer charged Wiesenthal with the responsibility to grow Sony/ATV Music publishing via acquisition, a strategy that had previously fallen to the wayside when the business was previously part of Sony’s Music unit.[15] At the time, Sony/ATV, was the smallest of the major music publishing companies.
In 2010, Wiesenthal and David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, conceived of and structured a partnership bringing together the largest players in 3D to create the world’s first 24-hour 3D network. The network, 3NET, launched on DirecTV in 2011 as a partnership between Sony, Discovery Communications and IMAX. Today 3NET has the largest collection of 3D television content in the world. Sony owns 33% of the venture and Wiesenthal sits on its board of directors.[16] Wiesenthal also championed the Sony Dash, the world’s first Internet connected alarm clock for the bedside or desktop. The Dash provides an always on, sequential display of over 1,500 apps, including Facebook status updates, Twitter streams, and news and weather updates. It is one of only a handful of Sony consumer electronics products developed in the United States.[17]
In 2011, Wiesenthal orchestrated a complex deal acquiring EMI Publishing for $2.2 billion to an investor consortium led by Sony. The investor group included media mogul David Geffen, the estate of Michael Jackson, Blackstone’s GSO’s Capital Partners, Mubadala Development Company (the investment arm of Abu Dhabi), and Jynwel Capital of Hong Kong. “We found long-term investors, who are not just looking at the short-term returns typical of private equity,” Wiesenthal said.[18] The New York Times, in a Deals of the Year wrap-up, called it the “sleeper deal of 2011,” one that “might have been the most interesting.”[19] Billboard described Wiesenthal as a “winner” in the deal: he helped assemble a consortium of investors to buy EMI Music Publishing. As a result of the transaction, Sony now controls the largest collection of publishing copyrights in the world.”[20] Bob Pittman, CEO of Clear Channel Communications said, "He took it from being insignificant to being the biggest."[21]
As Sony entered the tablet market in 2011, Wiesenthal publicly discussed the important role of the marriage of tablets and television can play in the emerging connected television business. He told a Goldman Sachs conference in New York that, although five years previously, “it was all about the boxes; TiVo, Slingbox, Roku, I think the consumers really have box exhaustion.” In their place, TVs can evolve so they only have one wire: the power cord. Consumers, in turn, he said, will use tablets to access video content from the Cloud and control the TV screen; a user with a subscription to Sony’s Video Unlimited or Netflix could take a tablet to a friend’s house and “throw” a film to that friend’s TV.[22]
Warner Music Group
In January 2, 2013, Wiesenthal was hired as Chief Operating Office, Warner Music Group in an effort to bolster the company's M&A, corporate development, and digital initiatives.[2]
In early 2013, Wiesenthal played a key role in the Company's acquisition of Parlophone, one of the world's leading recorded music companies and home to Coldplay, David Guetta, and Pink Floyd.[23]
In September 2013, Wiesenthal led the effort to architect and launch a multi-platform alliance between Warner Music Group and Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station operator in the United States. The New York Times said the deal. "re-writes the rules on royalties". Under the alliance, Warner Music Group became the very first major music company to receive royalties for their artists for radio airplay. Additionally, the deal restructured the way the two companies economically interface on iHeart custom digital radio as well as their multitude of online simulcast radio station. The intent of the restructuring was to result in favorable to economics to both Warner Music Group and Clear Channel as well as to increase Warner Music Group's market share over IHeart radio versus its major label competitors. The Wall Street Journal said. "If Clear Channel uses more of Warner Music’s records on its digital platforms, for example, that could translate to more terrestrial radio plays..." As part of the deal, Clear Channel offered Warner Music an “enhanced” version of its “artist integration” initiative, which advertises emerging artists on the air at Clear Channel’s expense. Clear Channel offers other labels such promotions for just several weeks surrounding a new release, but for Warner Music’s artists, the promotions will run up to 15 weeks. In the same Wall Street Journal article, Wiesenthal said, "Clear Channel’s high-visibility live and televised events, as well as its digital services, will enable us propel our artists’ careers in an extremely competitive marketplace.”
In February 2014, Wiesenthal conceived and led the creation of a broad alliance with music discovery Shazam. The alliance provides Warner Music Group unique granular access to the Shazam's user data to help find music acts early in their careers. Acts found through the usage data of Shazam's 300 million users, have the opportunity to be signed to a Shazam branded label under the Warner Music Group.
Prior to joining Warner Music Group in 2013, Wiesenthal had founded Blade, the first crowdsourced short distance aviation company.[24] In June 2014, it was announced that Wiesenthal would leave Time Warner and work full-time in Blade as the latter's leader.[3]
Achievements
Crain’s New York Business named him on its “40 Under 40” list in 2003.[4]
In 2007, the World Economic Forum named Wiesenthal a “Global Leader for Tomorrow.”
In 2014, he was named to the Billboard Power 100, an annual survey of the most powerful people in the music business as determined by Billboard Magazine.[25]
He serves on the Board of Directors of Entercom Communications Corp., the fourth largest radio broadcaster in the U.S., TripAdvisor, Inc. (The 2nd largest East Coast-based Internet company by market capitalization.), global pay-TV network operator Starz as well as Jawbone, a leading connected consumer device company specializing in personal wellness technology and audio products.[26]
He is a mentor of TechStars NYC (www.techstars.org) an elite mentorship-driven start-up accelerator and seed fund that helps emerging digital companies in New York launch and obtain strategic funding.
Personal life
Wiesenthal lives in New York City. Throughout college and for a short time after graduation, he raced Formula Ford cars in the U.S. That led to passion of car collecting and subsequently to creating with a partner the Bridgehampton Motoring Club, the leading Active Storage Collector car facility in the U.S.[27]
During Roger Waters' 2010 U.S. tour "The Wall", Wiesenthal played ukulele with Waters and his band during a set for two dates at Madison Square Garden.[28]
Wiesenthal was previously married to Goldman Sachs managing director Linnea Conrad.[29] They have one son (born 1997).[30]
References
- ↑ "Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Warner Music Group COO Robert Wiesenthal Joining Jawbone’s Board of Directors" (PDF). Jawbone. May 1, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- 1 2 "A Top Dealmaker at Sony Will Join Warner Music" New York Times". December 20, 2012.
- 1 2 Andrew Ross Sorkin (16 June 2015). "Warner Music Executive Is Leaving to Lead Helicopter Start-Up Blade". Retrieved 20 June 2015.
- 1 2 "40 Under 40". Crain’s New York Business. January 27 – February 2, 2003.
- ↑ "One of the Best Recruiters in the Neighborhood". New York Times. April 27, 2007.
- ↑ "40 Under 40". Crain’s New York Business. January 27 – February 2, 2003.
- ↑ "Inside the Shakeup at Sony". Fortune. April 4, 2005.
- ↑ "With ‘Spider-Man,’ and Others, Sony Seeks to Revive Fortunes". New York Times. May 5, 2002.
- ↑ "The Fight Over Michael’s Millions". Fortune. November 9, 2009.
- ↑ "Music Chief At EMI to Join Sony Venture". New York Times. February 28, 2007.
- ↑ "Sony Executive Talks Early Digital Film Releases, Netflix, Future of Music". Hollywood Reporter. December 6, 2011.
- ↑ "Publishing Impact". Billboard. May 31, 2008.
- ↑ "A Movie on Your TV at Home, Before You Can Rent It". New York Times. June 30, 2008.
- ↑ "Sony agrees to buy out Bertelsmann". Financial Times. August 5, 2008.
- ↑ "$500M Jacko-Pot, Michael may sell Beatles’ song stake to Sony". New York Post. October 5, 2004.
- ↑ "Sony-led channel a 3D first". New York Post. February 10, 2011.
- ↑ "Sony has high hopes for Dash". Los Angeles Times. May 2, 2010.
- ↑ "EMI Is Sold for $4.1 Billion in Combined Deals, Consolidating the Music Industry". New York Times. November 12, 2011.
- ↑ "A Toast for 2011 To the Best and Worst Of the Deal-Making". New York Times. January 3, 2012.
- ↑ "Hello Goodbye: EMI Divvied Up: Winners & Losers". Billboard. November 26, 2011.
- ↑ "Warner Music Hires Sony Veteran". Wall Street Journal. December 20, 2012.
- ↑ "Sony says tablets key to the future of TV". Financial Times. September 30, 2011.
- ↑ "Warner Music strikes deal to buy Parlophone for £500m". The Daily Telegraph. February 7, 2013.
- ↑ "App Offers Crowdsourced Hamptons Helicopter Flights". The New York Post. May 19, 2014.
- ↑ "The 2014 Billboard 100 Most Powerful People in Music". Billboard. January 22, 2014.
- ↑ "Confirmed: Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Warner Music COO Robert Wiesenthal join Jawbone’s board". The Next Web, May 1, 2013.
- ↑ "A Garage Worthy of Any Ferrari". NY Times. February 13, 2005.
- ↑ "Gatecrasher, Roger Waters 'The Wall’". The Daily News, October 10, 2010.
- ↑ Grayce West, Melanie (May 9, 2013). "Mother's Day Gift to the Child Mind Institute Is a Family Affair". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- ↑ "BIRTHS". Variety. March 26, 1997. Retrieved October 2, 2014.