Geffen Records, along with A&M Records, was subsequently merged into Interscope Records. Universal Music Group acquired PolyGram in 1999, resulting in a corporate reorganization of labels. Geffen Records would distribute releases on the new operation's DreamWorks Records subsidiary. Geffen stepped down as head of the label in 1995 to collaborate with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg to form DreamWorks SKG, an ambitious multimedia empire dealing in film, television, books and music. Following the sale, Geffen Records operated as one of MCA's leading independently managed labels.

The deal ultimately earned David Geffen an estimated US$800 million in stock (until the Japanese conglomerate, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.'s cash acquisition of MCA in 1991, made Geffen a billionaire) and an employment contract that ran until 1995. from 1988 to 1990.ДЄfter a decade of operating through Warner, when its contract with the company expired, the label was sold to MCA Music Entertainment (later renamed Universal Music Group) in 1990. Geffen also briefly distributed the first incarnation of Def American Recordings through Warner Bros. This prompted Geffen to create a subsidiary label, DGC Records in 1990 which focused on more progressive rock and would later embrace the emergence of alternative rock- Nirvana being an example. and Canada only), The Stone Roses, Guns N' Roses, Tesla, Sonic Youth and the comeback of 1970s-era rockers Aerosmith.

Toward the end of the decade, the company also began making a name for itself as an emerging rock label, thanks to the success of Whitesnake (U.S. The label also signed several established acts such as Elton John, Irene Cara, Cher, Debbie Harry, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, and Jennifer Holliday. Subsequently, the album went on to sell millions and gave Geffen its first number-one album and single the rights to the album would later be taken over by EMI, which eventually was absorbed by Geffen's parent Universal Music.ДЄs the 1980s progressed, Geffen would go on to have success with such acts as Berlin, Kylie Minogue, Quarterflash, Wang Chung, and Sammy Hagar. Two weeks after it entered the charts, Lennon was murdered in New York City. The label then released Double Fantasy by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Geffen Records' first artist signing was superstar Donna Summer, whose gold-selling album The Wanderer became the label's first release in 1980. Profits were split 50/50 between Geffen Records and its respective distributors. took over distribution for the rest of the world. Records provided 100 percent of the funding for the label's start-up and operations and Warner distributed its releases in North America, while Epic Records handled distribution in the rest of the world until 1985. Records, the sister company to Warner Bros. When that deal expired, he returned to work in 1980 and struck a deal with, ironically, Warner Bros. He was fired from Warner circa 1978, but still remained locked in a five-year contract, which prevented him from working elsewhere. Geffen stepped down from Asylum in 1975, when he crossed over to film and was named a vice president of Warner Bros. Geffen Records began operations in 1980, having been started by music industry businessman David Geffen who, in the early 1970s, had founded Asylum Records.

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