BMG

In 1985 Bertelsmann AG and RCA started a joint venture for their music divisions, RCA/Ariola Records. In 1986 Bertelsmann purchased all of the remainder of the joint venture's stock from General Electric and became the owner of both RCA and Arista in the process. The RCA, Arista and Ariola labels were united in 1987 as Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG). On August 5, 2004 BMG merged with Sony Music, the resulting music company was named Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Bertelsmann sold off its stake in 2008, leading to the formation of BMG Rights Management.