Editing HMV (section)

===Expansion===
[[File:HMV - Oxford Street 1.jpg|thumb|HMV's former flagship branch at 150–154 [[Oxford Street]], London. It was later converted into a [[Frasers Group|Sports Direct]] shop in 2015.]]
In 1966, HMV began expanding its retail operations in London. Throughout the 1970s, the company continued to expand, doubling in size, and in six years became the country's leading specialist music retailer. It faced strong competition, however, from [[Virgin Megastores]], established in 1976, and from [[Our Price]], established in 1972, which had numerous high street retail shops around the UK. Subsequently, HMV overtook Our Price in popularity and threatened its existence, having established a chain of newer and larger shops.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The company opened its flagship shop at a new location at 150–154 Oxford Street in 1986, announcing it was the largest record shop in the world at the time, and the official opening was attended by [[Bob Geldof]] and [[Michael Hutchence]].<ref name="Beeching">{{Cite news |last=Philip Beeching |date=15 January 2013 |title=HMV: How the top dog lost its bite |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21028803 |access-date=15 January 2013}}</ref> Growth continued for a third decade into the 1990s, with the company reaching over 320 shops<ref name=Beeching/> including in 1990 its first shop in the U.S. located at 86th and Lexington in New York City, which was the largest music shop in North America at the time.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 May 1990 |title=Brit 'superstore' to set up shop in Gotham |page=307 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> HMV celebrated its 75-year anniversary in 1996.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" />

In February 1998, EMI entered into a joint venture with [[Advent International]] to form HMV Media Group led by [[Alan Giles]], which acquired HMV's shops and [[Dillons the Bookstore|Dillons]], leaving EMI with a holding of around 45%.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boehm |first=Erich |date=25 February 1998 |title=EMI spins off HMV record shop chain |work=Variety |url=https://variety.com/1998/biz/news/emi-spins-off-hmv-record-store-chain-1117468118/ |access-date=22 March 2015}}</ref> The new joint venture then bought the [[Waterstones]] chain of bookshops to merge with Dillons.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 February 1998 |title=WH Smith unloads book shop chain |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/59970.stm |access-date=22 March 2015}}</ref>