British music retail chain HMV enters bankruptcy

[Miguel]

LONDON – The British music retail chain HMV announced on Tuesday that it had entered administration, a form of bankruptcy, as it became the latest British company to suffer from the country’s flagging economy.

HMV, whose history dates back to 1902 and well-known trademark is a dog sat next to a gramophone, said it had failed to reach an agreement with its creditors over outstanding debts, and would appoint administrators to oversee the business, including a potential sale to new owners. The company’s shares have also been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange.

The bleak fortunes of the British company, which opened outlets across North America in the 1980s, but closed its last New York store in the early 2000s, mirror similar problems at many of Britain’s retailers.

...The plight of HMV, whose name stands for His Master’s Voice, is a continuation of a sea change in consumer habits as more music and video is bought through online retailers like Amazon.com and Apple’s iTunes.

HMV was spun out of the music record label EMI in 1998, and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2002 through an initial public offering worth around $1.6 billion. Since the company’s share price hit a record high in early 2005, the stock price has fallen more than 99 percent.

The British music retailer operates around 240 stores across Britain, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong, and employs more than 4,000 people.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/b...lobal-home

In the "Possible ALBUM release date" thread, http://haleyfans.com/showthread.php?tid=468 , it was noted that "HMV is a British global entertainment retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom and Ireland."

[Miguel]

Forbes

Don't Fire An Employee And Leave Them In Charge Of The Corporate Twitter Account

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2...r-account/

After she stopped tweeting on the HMV feed, Rose continued to tweet on her own account, @poppy_powers, using a hashtag she created while tweeting on the HMV account, #hmvXFactorFiring. She explained that she had worked as an intern at HMV and in that job, had been responsible for the company’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Because she is single and has no kids or mortgage, she wrote that she felt she was in a unique position to speak out.

On her own account, Rose also wrote about how the company never quite grasped what her job entailed. “I wanted to show the power of Social Media to those who refused to be educated,” she tweeted. “Just to set something straight, I did not ‘hijack’ the hmv twitter account. I actually assumed sole responsibility of Twitter & Facebook over two years ago, as an intern. When asked (this afternoon), I gladly provided the password to head office. I also set another member of staff up as a manager on Facebook, and removed myself from the admin list. I didn’t resist any requests to cooperate.”

...Later in the day, this tweet came through the HMVaccount: “One of our departing colleagues was understandably upset. We’re still here thou, thx for supporting hmv thro these challenging times.”

But as recently as eight hours ago, according to a tweet on Rose’s account, she still had access to the HMV Twitter feed. “@hmvtweets you need to go to ‘settings’ and revoke my account access as an admin. I’m still able to switch between accounts.”

[Miguel]