This is why the Senate is holding hearings, and why the FTC and European Commision are holding this up. Here are the latest marketshare breakdowns in the US, as counted by Soundscan for last week and shared with Digital Music News by a top label executive.
If the deal closed right now with all approvals, UMG+EMI would account for more than 40 percent of total recording sales (physical, digital, whatever). Moreover, the top two labels (the new UMG plus Sony) would command roughly 73 percent marketshare. –NME