A report in today's New York Times and International Herald Tribune tells us that the turbulence at Sony BMG Music Entertainment joint venture is likely to get worse before it gets better. Having sucessfully pushed to replace the Sony exec who had been leading the venture with a Bertelsmann guy, it now looks likely that Bertelsmann wants to exit. Seems Bertelsmann needs the nearly $2 billion it might get for the stake to buy out a minority shareholder of its own, which is pressuring the privately owned German media giant to go public.

What, Bertelsmann didn't see this coming?

Brings to mind a wise comment by John Garcia, the Sprint Nextel exec who's running the wireless-cable TV joint venture his company recently formed with Cox Communications and other cable TV companies. JVs, he notes, have to be on guard against "strategic drift"--always a danger when a JV has been formed to help companies move ahead in a fast-changing business like his, or, presumably, the music business.

You can get an inside look at the Sprint JV--as well as JVs at Dow Chemical and other big firms--in the latest Corporate Dealmaker, a special issue on joint ventures. — Kenneth Klee

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