Imagem Music Group was founded in 2008 by Dutch firm Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, one of the world's largest pension funds, in conjunction with Dutch independent publisher/media company CP Masters BV. It began by acquiring music publishing rights in a number of catalogues sold by Universal Music Publishing Group, such as Rondor, Zomba, BBC and 19 Music; the sale was worth 140 million euros (US$221.5M as of April 2008). These were sold by Universal after the European Commission ordered the sell-off as a condition of its merger with BMG's publishing arm. This was followed by acquiring the world's leading classical music publishing company Boosey & Hawkes (which includes the catalogues of Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, and Aaron Copland), and Rodgers & Hammerstein, containing the rights to stage and film musicals, and representing hundreds of works by writers including Irving Berlin.