Doug to Sony a done deal, say insiders

SONY GETS AN ALL-PRO QB: Insiders at both UMG and Sony Music are now claiming that the Doug Morris-to-Sony deal is a fait accompli, the only remaining issue being when he’ll start his new job. Will today’s UMG board meeting in N.Y. determine when Morris’ move to Sony Music will officially begin? Sony will now be moving forward under the leadership of the single most successful CEO in the last 20 years of the business, a remarkably savvy and collegial record man who managed to build the most dominant worldwide music company of all time. For the first time since Sony and BMG merged in 2003, the company will be overseen by a music business insider who understands how the game is played, in sharp contrast to Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and Andy Lack. And if history has taught us anything (to paraphrase Hyman Roth Godfather II), it’s that non-music business CEOs are inevitably, without exception, doomed to fail. (12/10a)