Giant's worldwide structure takes shape.(News)

In parallel with the appointments of Rob Stringer and Tim Bowen, the international structure of Sony BMG also began to take shape last week.

The company's COO Michael Smellie announced a regional team--as yet, without titles--which sees the new group establish four distinct spheres of interest outside the US, reporting to Smellie. In parallel with Bowen's responsibility for English-speaking markets are heads of continental Europe (Maarten Steinkamp), Asia (Richard Denekamp) and Latin (Frank Welzer). The four appointments--representing two ex-BMG executives and two ex-Sony executives--underline the equal nature of this merger.

Sony BMG's new international structure differs from those of the three remaining major groups.

Of the current international structures, EMI follows the most similar pattern, with Jean Francois Cecillon running continental Europe, and other regional managers running South East Asia (Norman Cheng), Japan (Masaaki Saito) and Latin America (Marco Bissi). David Munns runs the North American company.

How Sony BMG's four executives will work together within the new company remains unclear at such an early stage, but the first key responsibilities will be to take the first steps in bringing the two companies together by installing new market heads for Sony BMG.

After Bowen's appointment, the one with most immediate relevance to the UK is that of Steinkamp, both because of his region's close proximity and the fact that he will now be based in London.

Steinkamp is a former executive within the UK company, who oversaw the integration of the RCA and ...