WMG

WMG may refer to:

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group (WMG), also known as Warner Music, is an American major global record company headquartered in New York City. The largest American-owned music conglomerate worldwide, it is one of the 'big three' recording companies (the third largest in the global music industry). The company operates some of the largest and most successful recording labels in the world, including its flagship labels Warner Bros. Records, Parlophone Records and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music-publishing companies.

Formerly owned by Time Warner, the company was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange until May 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries, which was completed in July 2011. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs in excess of 3,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world.

History

1950s and 1960s

WMG's roots date back to the founding of Warner Bros. Records in 1958 as a division of Warner Bros. Pictures. The film company had no record label division at the time and one of its contracted actors, Tab Hunter, scored a hit song for Dot Records, which was a division of rival Paramount Pictures. In order to prevent any repetition of its actors recording for rival companies, and to also capitalize on the music business, Warner Bros. Records was created. In 1963, Warner purchased Reprise Records, which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings. With the Reprise acquisition, Warner gained the services of Mo Ostin, who would be mainly responsible for the success of Warner/Reprise.

Warwick Manufacturing Group

The Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) is an academic department at the University of Warwick, providing research, education and knowledge transfer in engineering, manufacturing and technology. The group provides taught and research degrees for postgraduate students at the University of Warwick campus, as well as at overseas centres in China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Cyprus, Russia and Thailand.

History

The Warwick Manufacturing Group was originally founded in 1980 by Kumar Bhattacharyya to support the reinvigoration of UK manufacturing through research and knowledge transfer (Bhattacharyya, made a life peer in 2004, remains chairman of WMG). Its first venture was a part-time master's degree for senior industry staff; this considered technology and management as a unified whole, with modules taught at a purpose-built residential centre. While the course was initially criticised by academics, it proved popular with industry and companies began to send staff to WMG in greater numbers.