Editing Really Useful Group (section)

==History==
The company was set up in 1977 when Lloyd Webber, frustrated with the terms of his contract with the [[impresario]] [[Robert Stigwood]], decided to take greater control over the management of his creative works. All Lloyd Webber compositions and productions created from that point have been owned by the company.

The Really Useful Group was floated on the stock market in 1986. Four years later, Lloyd Webber took it back into private ownership, selling 30% to film and music group [[PolyGram]] to fund the cost of buying back shares. In 1995, PolyGram was bought by Canadian conglomerate [[Seagram]], with the Really Useful stake being passed to its own film and music subsidiary, [[Universal Music Group|Universal]]. In 1999, Lloyd Webber paid $US75 million for Universal's 30% stake, giving the composer 100% ownership of the group.<ref>{{cite press release |title=Universal sells 30% stake in Really Useful back to Lloyd Webber |date=18 April 1999 |publisher=[[Universal Music Group]] |url=http://new.umusic.com/News.aspx?NewsId=27 |access-date=22 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205120018/http://new.umusic.com/News.aspx?NewsId=27 |archive-date=5 February 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>