Music companies Sony Music and Bertelsmann AG have agreed to merge, forming the second-largest record company in the industry (Universal is the largest). They have agreed to a 50-50 share of the New York City-based venture with BMG chairman Rolf Schmidt-Holtz as chairman and Sony Music chairman Andrew Lack as CEO.

The companies have cited piracy and continued losses over the past few years as reasons for the merge. Similarly, Time Warner Inc. agreed to sell its music branch to private investors last month for the same reasons.

Time Warner chose to sell to private investors over rival company EMI Group Plc in order to avoid antitrust regulations. Sony/BMG is preparing for antitrust-related investigations in the coming months.http://www.newsday.com/business/printedition/ny-bzsony133582661dec13,0,3632192.story?coll=ny-business-print