1. I'll believe it when I see it. 2. Which EMI subsidiary has the title for the US? For "Expo Remix," it was Astralwerks/Caroline/Virgin. It's probably more than likely that Caroline will distribute the title rather than EMM (EMI Music Marketing, formerly EMD) proper because it won't sell millions and millions.
But mainly the time the factories make the CDs, the bigger the release, the longer the time.
3. This is not true. CDs are often "bumped," the detestable practice of moving an album's release to a later date repeatedly, so that more pre-release buzz can be generated, which translates into more initial sales (hopefully, on the label's behalf). Sometimes albums are bumped into extinction, without ever being released at all, due to label politics, such as Ras Kass's unreleased 3rd album, "Van Gogh," and the first two albums by the Wu-Tang Clan affiliate group known as Deadly Venoms. Peace.