High stakes in merger game: Warner's "non-exclusive discussions" likened to a poker game by analysts.(News)

Last week the music business was less about tunes and more about chat as all the majors owned up to--or were charged by the media about--negotiations about mergers, takeovers and offers.

While EMI's takeover bid was the most concrete attempt to turn talk into action, Vivendi Universal outlined a timetable for its plans to shed its entertainment group, while Warner and BMG quietly quit their exclusive discussions.

"Non-exclusive discussions" is now the operative phrase, according to one City broker. "Everyone is talking to everyone else," he says. "Anyone else."

Indeed, in the past few months, debt-ridden Vivendi Universal has been linked with numerous suitors in a bid to flog off parts of its business, including Universal Music if the price ever felt right. It never did, but finally, at the beginning of September, VU signed a deal with NBC, the broadcasting arm of General Electric, to merge Vivendi Universal Entertainment and create a new $13bn turnover media group. Last week, as it announced a loss of 632m [euro] in the first six months of this year, VU said it hopes to seal the merger within the next few weeks.

Two weeks later--Time Warner says it was on September 15--the "exclusive" talks between AOL Time Warner and BMG, which had already been extended once, ended. That was the signal for the media to fill with stories about merger talks.

Now EMI is talking to Time Warner about buying its music group. That's official. But, according to sources close to Time Warner and BMG, they are not finished with each other yet.

Although spokespeople for both groups are refusing to confirm that negotiations are still continuing, one source says, "BMG is still open to talks. Although the exclusivity period ended, they are still talking."