Word: yetnikoff
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...soon cost his new bosses a bundle. As Sony planned its $3.4 billion takeover of Columbia Pictures last year, Yetnikoff tried to help out by orchestrating what turned into a costly $500 million deal to hire Jon Peters and Peter Guber, the producers of Batman, to run the movie studio. But rival Warner Bros. contended it had a contract with the producers and sued Sony. In a settlement, Warner won valuable properties, including half-ownership of the CBS record club...
Since the Sony takeover, Yetnikoff's relationships with his superstar artists have deteriorated. Bruce Springsteen felt so ignored by Yetnikoff, music insiders claim, that the Boss was considering leaving CBS for rival Geffen Records. Michael Jackson, a CBS gold mine since 1975, has also been increasingly courted by Geffen...
...Yetnikoff has been dogged by his associations with the industry's leading roughneck, Joseph Isgro, who reputedly has ties to the Gambino crime family. Isgro is a boss of the "Network," an alliance of independent record promoters. He was indicted last year and charged with distributing payola, payments of cash or cocaine, on behalf of the major record labels to radio stations to get certain Top 40 records played. But last week a Los Angeles federal judge threw out the case against Isgro, accusing the prosecutors of "outrageous government misconduct" for withholding evidence. Yetnikoff has never been directly linked...
...perhaps three decades in the bumping, grinding music industry are more than any mogul can stand. During the Guber-Peters deal last year, Yetnikoff began rehabilitation for substance abuse. "I think Walter is just fed up," says music-industry veteran Lynda ("Boom-Boom") Emon, a former mistress of Yetnikoff's who is writing a kiss-and-tell book. "He came to the end of his rope and said, 'What do I need this for? I'm rich...
...albums under Yetnikoff in worldwide sales...