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Business News Deals Labels & Publishers
Believe buys French indie Naïve out of administration
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 25 August 2016
Digital distribution firm Believe has acquired the assets of French independent record company Naïve, which fell into administration back in June. The deal, which was approved by the commercial court in Paris yesterday, is thought to be worth about €10 million, and will see Believe take on the indie’s core operations and catalogue, though not its debts.
Believe’s bid for Naïve was backed by the label’s staff, of which 25 will stay on with the company. Confirming its acquisition yesterday, Believe said that it will rely on this team to make a success of the Naïve roster and catalogue, while the new parent company will “offer its expertise in the digital business, its global presence in 30 countries, its physical and digital distribution network and its investment capacity with full respect to the editorial line that made Naïve successful: musical diversity, nonconformity, artists with global reach, close relationship to the artists and transparency”.
Set up by former Virgin France boss Patrick Zelnick in 1997, Naïve was a high profile indie in the French market, with Zelnik both vocal and active in the French and wider European indie label communities. Despite many successes over the years, the company had faced various financial challenges in recent years, downsizing quite a bit before finally going into receivership earlier this summer.
