- The army-type vehicle is spelled HMMWV, more usually known as Humvee.
HMV Group is an international
entertainmentAn entertainment is any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time.Entertainment is typically passive - as in watching opera or a movie. Activities which involve participating in games or sports are more often considered to be recreation...
retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The company also operate stores in
IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
,
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
and
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
. It is listed on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1801, it is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, with many overseas listings as well as British companies...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 250 IndexThe FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index of 250 UK companies on the London Stock Exchange. They are selected quarterly as being the 101st to 350th largest companies with their primary listing on the exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March,...
. Acquisitions by the HMV Group include
Waterstone'sWaterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that now employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. Waterstone's has since acquired the Ottakars and Dillons bookshops after itself becoming a subsidiary of the HMV Group in 1998...
in 1998 from
W H SmithWH Smith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
, the music retailer
FoppFopp is a chain of retail stores selling music, film, books and other entertainment products in the United Kingdom. Fopp has nine stores.-History:...
in August 2007, and selected
ZavviZavvi was an entertainment retail chain in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, originally Virgin Megastores. Zavvi was formed in September 2007 when a management buy-out team purchased the company from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group...
retail outlets in February 2009.
Simon Fox has been Chief Executive Officer since 28 September 2006. For this role he is paid an annual salary of £493,000.
HMV stands for
His Master's Voice, a painting by
Francis BarraudFrancis James Barraud was an English painter. His most famous work, His Master's Voice, is one of the best-known commercial logos in the world, having inspired the music industry trademark depicting a dog and phonograph, which is used by several corporations, including HMV, RCA, and JVC.The...
,
A.R.A.An Associate of the Royal Academy is a practising artist who has been elected as a member of the Royal Academy, an art institution based in London, England. Holders are entitled to use the designation A.R.A. after their names....
of the dog
NipperNipper was a dog that served as the model for a painting entitled His Master's Voice that later became identified with a number of audio recording brands, especially RCA Victor.- Biography :...
listening to a wind-up
gramophoneThe record player, phonograph or gramophone was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the late 1870s until the late 1980s.- Terminology :...
. In the original painting, the dog was listening to a cylinder phonograph.
1920s to 1990s
In 1921 the
Gramophone CompanyThe Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
opened the first HMV shop in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The store was opened by composer Sir
Edward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO was an English composer. Several of his first major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, were greeted with acclaim. He also composed oratorios, chamber music, symphonies, instrumental concertos,...
. In March 1931 the Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI).
In 1966, HMV began expanding its retail operations in London. Throughout the 1970s, the company continued to expand, doubling in its size and in six years became the country's leading specialist music retailers though faced new competition from Virgin Megastores which was established in 1971 and
Our PriceOur Price was a chain of record stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from the 1970s until the late 1990s. Originally founded in 1972 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, early stores were branded "The Tape Revolution" and concentrated on the then-new compact cassette...
, established a year later in 1972. During this period, HMV took over
Our PriceOur Price was a chain of record stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from the 1970s until the late 1990s. Originally founded in 1972 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, early stores were branded "The Tape Revolution" and concentrated on the then-new compact cassette...
in popularity, having established a chain of newer, larger stores which threatened their existence.
The growth continued for a third decade in the 1990s. In 1996, there was over 300 HMV Music stores internationally, when the company celebrated its 75 year anniversary.
In 1998 HMV Media was demerged from EMI leaving EMI with a 43% stake in HMV Media. The same year, the Company bought the
Waterstone'sWaterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that now employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. Waterstone's has since acquired the Ottakars and Dillons bookshops after itself becoming a subsidiary of the HMV Group in 1998...
chain of bookshops and merged them with
DillonsDillons was a bookshop and subsequently a bookselling chain, based in the United Kingdom, which traded from 1932 to 1999.Founded by Una Dillon in 1932, Dillons was for most of its history most closely associated with its signature building on Gower Street in London, near University College London,...
.
2000s
In 2002 the Company floated on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1801, it is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, with many overseas listings as well as British companies...
as HMV Group plc, leaving EMI with only a token holding.
For most of 2005 the HMV Group took over book chain
Ottakar'sOttakar's was a chain of bookshops in the United Kingdom founded in 1987 by James Heneage. Following a takeover by the HMV Group plc in 2006, the chain was merged into the Waterstone's brand.-History:...
. In a similar situation to the previous acquisition
DillonsDillons was a bookshop and subsequently a bookselling chain, based in the United Kingdom, which traded from 1932 to 1999.Founded by Una Dillon in 1932, Dillons was for most of its history most closely associated with its signature building on Gower Street in London, near University College London,...
, the firm was merged into the larger
Waterstone'sWaterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that now employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. Waterstone's has since acquired the Ottakars and Dillons bookshops after itself becoming a subsidiary of the HMV Group in 1998...
operation. This merger tied in to HMV's strategy for growth, as many of the Ottakar's branches were in smaller towns and outposts.
Permira bid
The Christmas period of 2005 was disastrous for the HMV group, with many product areas falling in sales. As a result, HMV itself became susceptible to a takeover, this time from a private equity firm called
PermiraPermira is an international private equity firm which has its largest office in London, and which is currently headed by Damon Buffini. Permira is the feminine form of the Latin adjective permirus, glossed by the firm as "very surprising, very different" .The principal Permira entity is a United...
. On 7 February 2006, HMV Group received a £762 million conditional takeover bid (based on 190
pThe penny sterling is a subdivision of Pound sterling, the currency for the United Kingdom. It is currently of a pound, but historically was of a pound...
a share) from Permira, however it was rejected on the basis that it was an insufficient valuation of the company.
On 13 March 2006, HMV released a press statement declining a second offer from the private equity firm, even though it increased the value of the company, HMV felt that their firm was being undervalued and so rejected that offer of takeover as well. By the beginning of March 2006, HMV released a statement that the Permira offer undervalued the medium and long term prospects for the Group, resulting in Permira's withdrawal from the bidding.
Ottakar's
The Competition Commission provisionally cleared HMV Group, through Waterstones, for takeover of the Ottakar's group on 30 March 2006. The Commission stated that the takeover would "not result in a substantial lessening of competition".
Waterstones then announced that it had successfully negotiated a takeover of Ottakar's on 31 May 2006.
All 130 Ottakar's stores were rebranded as Waterstone's prior to Christmas 2006. In March 2007, new Group CEO Simon Fox announced a 10% reduction over three years in the enlarged Waterstone's total store space, comprising mostly dual location shops created by the acquisition of Ottakar's.
Recent developments
In early July 2007, retailers
FoppFopp is a chain of retail stores selling music, film, books and other entertainment products in the United Kingdom. Fopp has nine stores.-History:...
went into
administrationAdministration, as a legal concept, is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent companies and allows them to carry on running their business...
, with the closure of 81 stores and 700 staff made redundant. Towards the end of the month, HMV bought the Fopp brand and six of its stores. HMV claimed that the six stores had traded profitably prior to their closure, and that the deal would save around 70 jobs. HMV later added a seventh Fopp store to its portfolio. They will continue to trade under the Fopp brand.
In 2007, HMV selected
CLIC SargentCLIC Sargent is a cancer charity in the United Kingdom, of which Cherie Blair is a patron. It was formed by the merger of Sargent Cancer Care for Children and Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood and specializes in providing support for children....
as its charity partner until 2010.
In the 2008 MCV Industry Excellence Awards, HMV was given the title 'Entertainment Retailer of the Year'.
On 1 September 2008, HMV Group launched Get Closer, a social networking site which allows users to import their own music library and rivals current providers including
NapsterNapster, Inc. is an online music service offering a variety of purchase and subscription models. The company's name and logo originated from bankruptcy liquidation of the Napster peer-to-peer file trading service, which was shut down after a series of legal actions taken by the RIAA. The brand name...
and the
iTunes StoreThe iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, it was as of April 2008 the number-one music vendor in the United States. As of January 2009, the store has sold 6 billion songs, accounting for 70% of...
which are both examples of an
online music storeAn online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...
.
On 24 December 2008,
Christmas EveChristmas Eve, December 24, is the night before Christmas Day, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.-Western Churches:Many Roman Catholics and Anglicans traditionally celebrate a midnight Mass which begins sometime before midnight on Christmas Day; this ceremony, which is held in churches...
, HMV's rival
ZavviZavvi was an entertainment retail chain in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, originally Virgin Megastores. Zavvi was formed in September 2007 when a management buy-out team purchased the company from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group...
, also an entertainment retailer, entered into administration. On 14 January 2009, a placing announcement by the company revealed that they intend to acquire 14 of Zavvi's stores. By selling additional shares, the company will raise money to fund another joint venture with the
MAMA GroupMAMA Group is a live venue and artist management company which was founded in 2002. It is the parent company of a range of music and marketing businesses. The two key divisions of MAMA Group are live music and artist services...
, to run 11 live music venues, including the
Hammersmith ApolloThe HMV Hammersmith Apollo is a major entertainment venue located in Hammersmith, London. Designed by Robert Cromie in Art Deco style, it opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema. It was known as the Hammersmith Odeon. In 2007, the building was purchased by the MAMA Group...
which is set to be renamed to the HMV Apollo. Other venues purchased include The Forum in London's Kentish Town, the Birmingham Institute and Aberdeen's Moshulu. HMV will also use the opportunity to create a tickets division which will have benefits for HMV loyalty card members. HMV began piloting their refreshed loyalty scheme during 2008, and it will be expanded during 2009, under the name "pure hmv". The scheme had previously ceased to operate after being introduced in August 2003.
On 18 February 2009, five additional Zavvi stores were purchased by HMV Group, all will be rebranded to HMV outlets. A 6th store has been taken over from Zavvi: this is a store in
ExeterExeter is a city and district in Devon, England; it is the county town of Devon. Exeter is located approximately northeast of Plymouth, and southwest of Bristol, on the River Exe. The city has a population of 111,076 according to the 2001 Census....
's modern
PrincesshayPrincesshay is the name for a new commercial retail development in Exeter.The Princesshay was a 1950s pedestrianised parade of shops, the first pedestrian shopping centre in the country, running from Bedford Street to Eastgate House, roughly parallel with the High Street...
Development. The acquisitions by HMV are currently being investigated by the
Office of Fair TradingThe Office of Fair Trading is a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforces both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the UK's economic regulator...
.
Corporate identity
HMV shops in the UK and Ireland use the
HMVHis Master's Voice is a famous trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
trademark with
NipperNipper was a dog that served as the model for a painting entitled His Master's Voice that later became identified with a number of audio recording brands, especially RCA Victor.- Biography :...
the dog. In Asian markets, only the gramophone and not the dog is the HMV trademark. HMV stores in Canada do not currently have the rights to the Nipper trade mark, but have applied for use of the trade mark in Canada.
On 1 April, 2007, HMV Group announced that Gromit, the animated dog of
Wallace and GromitWallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series consisting of four British animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations...
fame, would stand in for Nipper for a three month period, promoting children's DVDs in its UK stores.
United Kingdom and in the Republic Ireland
As of 26 April 2008, the company operates 379 HMV shops and 313 Waterstone's. HMV shops in the UK and Ireland use the
HMVHis Master's Voice is a famous trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
trademark with Nipper.
Australia
In September 2005, HMV Group decided to sell its 32 Australian stores to focus on the UK, Irish, Canadian and Asian markets. Under the HMV Australia subsidiary, these stores were sold to Brazin Limited, known briefly in the UK as Sanity Music, for AUS$7.3m (£1.7m). The company also operates the Sanity Entertainment and Virgin Entertainment (Virgin at Myer) retail chain in Australia. The
horizontal mergerIn economics, a horizontal merger is the combination of two or more firms competing in the same market with the same good or service. See Horizontal integration....
was approved by the
Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionThe Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is an independent authority of the government of Australia. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trade Practices Commission and the Prices Surveillance Authority to administer the Trade Practices Act 1974...
in October 2005. The HMV group's agreement with Brazin is to phase out the HMV brand in Australia by 2010. Most HMV stores in Australia have very high overhead costs and most have been closed when their lease ends and the remaining stores converted into Sanity stores, if there is no Sanity store in the area.
North America & Canada
In 1988, HMV Group began operating in Canada. This coincided with the bankruptcy, a few years later, of the Canadian record store retail chain
A&A RecordsA&A Records was a Canadian record store chain, which declared bankruptcy in 1991. Prior to the expansion of Sam the Record Man in the early 1960s, A&A was the dominant record store chain in Canada...
. HMV has also been cited as a contributor to the decline and eventual bankruptcy of two other major Canadian chains,
Sam the Record ManSam the Record Man was a Canadian record store chain that, at one time, was Canada's largest music recording retailer. In 1982, their ads proclaimed they had "140 locations, coast to coast"....
and Music World.
HMV had a handful of stores in the Eastern United States, which was overseen by HMV's Canadian operations. HMV stores in Canada do not have the rights to the Nipper trade mark.
Poor real estate decisions made in the early 1990s rendered the United States stores uneconomical and HMV gradually extricated itself from leases, with the final store in the United States, having lost £0.5 million in 2003 and £1 million in 2004, closed on 3 November 2004.
In contrast, HMV has a strong position in Canada's music market, with 116 stores as of October 2007. For the last two decades, HMV has been awarded "Canadian Music Retailer of the Year".
In 2005, HMV Canada took over a
Virgin MegastoreVirgin Megastores is an international chain of record shops, founded by Sir Richard Branson on London's Oxford Street in January or February 1971 . Virgin Megastores are best described today as entertainment retailers....
in
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
, allowing it to own, "Canada’s largest store dedicated to music and DVD".
In recent years, HMV Canada has encountered controversy by removing from sale all music and video recordings made by artists that have made exclusive distribution deals with other retailers for particular limited-edition or early-release titles; artists affected by this punitive move include
Alanis MorissetteAlanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She has won 12 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records...
and
The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962 in London when multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup...
.
Japan
In July 2007, HMV Japan, which operates 62 shops, was sold to DSM Investment Catorce. The stores and HMV Japan website continue to trade as HMV, but is no longer owned by HMV Group.
Hong Kong
In 1994, HMV began operating in Hong Kong. HMV began relocating their store locations to
shopping mallA shopping mall, shopping centre or shopping center is a building or multiple buildings consisting of a complex of shops representing leading merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a convenient parking area – a modern,...
s that are newly opened. HMV in Hong Kong appeals to the crowd that enjoy organized and free-sampling environment which many other records cannot match. However, the prices on their products especially those without promotion and discount are often higher than many independent record stores. HMV Hong Kong is the second place after UK that launched in-store digital kiosks. It is also the first in Asia.
As of 2008, there are currently six HMV stores in Hong Kong.
India
Gramophone company HMV also had an existence in India till the late 90's but later it was taken over by the RPG Group. Now the company is known as SA RE GA MA Music India Ltd.
Product Range
HMV stores stock a range of products from
AudioMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, Books,
CDsA Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store sound recordings exclusively, but later it also allowed the preservation of other types of data. Audio CDs have been commercially available since October 1982...
,
ComputerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
software and
hardwareHardware is a general term for the physical artifacts of a technology. It may also mean the physical components of a computer system, in the form of computer hardware....
, DVDs and Video games.