The New York Times"We mourn the passing of Stephen Swid, SESAC's former Chairman & CEO, who passed away on Sunday following an extended illness,” current SESAC chairman/CEO John Josephson said in a statement on SESAC’s"Stephen led the 1992 acquisition of SESAC from the founding Prager family along with Freddie Gershon, Ira Smith and Allen & Company Inc.
During that run, Swid returned to the music industry in grand style with two new partners, Freddie Gershon and Ira Smith, buying SESAC for $15 million, according to SESAC internal documents obtained bysome years back. If Swid and his partners hit a home run in buying and flipping SBK, the SESAC deal proved to be a a grand slam.
In their tenure as stewards of SESAC, Swid and his partners were also at the forefront of music industry financing. After Bowie bonds were launched in the late 1990s, SESAC did its first securitization in 1999 for $29 million with the help of former partner Koppleman’s firm C.A.K. Universal Credit Corp. in what was the first of three securitized debt offerings it would do over the next 11 years.
After that deal, Swid and partners embarked on a profitable strategy that allowed them to take advantage of strategies that their competitors -- ASCAP and BMI -- couldn’t do because they were hobbled by their consent decrees they had signed with the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
And that soon proved to be the case. In subsequent years right up to today, the company’s roster has included Charlie XCX, R.E.M., Adele, Rush, Ric Ocasek of the Cars, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, David Crosby, Green Day, Zac Brown, Kenny Rogers, Lady Antebellum and Rosanne Cash among others.
R.I.P. Stephen
He shall be missed