Behemoth major label the Universal Music Group has bought UK-based Sanctuary Records for a reported for 44.5 million pounds. While the troubled label does come with 59.8 million pounds of debt, it also features a merchandising and artist management arm that the UMG found attractive enough to acquire.

This follows the gutting of the US-based Sanctuary earlier this year. As of June 30th that company scaled back operations and now acts only as a catalogue label. This followed the similar gutting of V2 earlier in the year.