Warner Music (WMG) which has been thrashed for poor earnings, announced that it would team up with Egypt mobile provider Orascom to provide music and ringtones to 60 million cell customers in markets including Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Italy, according to the FT. The deal is seen as a way to get money from markets that are rife with content piracy.
Warner’s poor earnings troubled everyone on Wall St. including Jim Cramer who took a swipe at the company on CNBC.
Warner has also been in a fire fight with Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs over whether music downloads should be protected by digital rights management.
WMG stock is down from a 52-week high of $31 to its current price of $19.39, close to its low.
Maybe a deal in the desert will help.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.