quote:Mercury news: In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said.
quote:Mercury news: Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry.
quote:Mercury news: Jobs' interest in owning a music company comes at a time when the record companies believe that piracy has decimated CD sales around the world, shrinking revenue nearly 25 percent since 2000. Last year, Jobs infuriated the industry with Apple's ``rip, mix, burn'' marketing campaign, which many executives believed promoted piracy of music on Apple's computers.
