Business Notes Entertainment

Really Useful Holdings has certainly proved useful to tunesmith Andrew Lloyd Webber. Last week he sold a 30% interest in his company to European record giant PolyGram for more than $130 million. The London-based creator of Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express and other theatrical sensations has been criticized for shallowness, but no one questions Lloyd Webber's status as a cash machine. For PolyGram, the investment in Really Useful is the latest step in an aggressive and costly drive to buy up independent entertainment companies, following the acquisition of A&M and Island Records. While the deal will give PolyGram a role in musical theater, some skeptics suggest that PolyGram paid a steep price for Really Useful, since the return on the investment depends on the West End wunderkind's future output. As for Lloyd Webber, the PolyGram millions will allow him to expand into film and TV, while settling most of the debt his company incurred when it went private in 1990.