Sheet music publisher Hal Leonard LLC buys largest sheet music firm in Europe in $50 million deal

Milwaukee sheet music publisher Hal Leonard LLC has completed its biggest acquisition ever, paying more than $50 million for the largest sheet music firm in Europe.

Joining Hal Leonard is the sheet music wing of The Music Sales Group, a global publisher with headquarters in London.

The purchase adds a 200-employee, $50-million-a-year business to Hal Leonard, which posted sales of more than $200 million last year and describes itself as the world’s largest print music publisher.

With the deal, Hal Leonard also acquires a chain of 11 music shops in the United Kingdom and Ireland — the Milwaukee company’s first venture into brick-and-mortar retail. Some of the Musicroom stores sell instruments as well as sheet music.

Besides its sheet music wing, Music Sales Group also has units that own the rights to an extensive library of music. That business has been growing, and Music Sales Group owner Robert Wise wants the firm to concentrate on it, said Keith Mardak, chairman of Hal Leonard.

“We’re buying the print side and the retail store side, and he’s keeping the songs,” Mardak said. “With the money we’re paying them, he’ll be able to buy lots of songs.”

Along with the sheet music business and the stores, Hal Leonard will inherit Music Sales Group’s offices in London; Paris; Madrid, Spain; Berlin; and Copenhagen, Denmark. The office in Sydney, Australia, will be merged with Hal Leonard’s office in Melbourne, Mardak said.

Mardak said the acquisition will bring some jobs — he couldn’t say how many — to Milwaukee. As Hal Leonard combines the staffs handling areas such as editorial, accounting and royalties, more of that work probably will be handled here, Mardak said. Hal Leonard’s headquarters are at 7777 W. Blue Mound Road.

Music Sales Group dates to the 1930s. Its founder knew bandleader Tommy Dorsey, and the company still owns the rights to Dorsey’s catalog, Mardak said. He said Hal Leonard and Music Sales Group have worked together since 1971.

Hal Leonard’s products already are sold in more than 65 countries, but the addition of the Music Sales Group business will further bolster the Milwaukee firm’s position in Europe, Mardak said.