{"id":254706,"date":"2026-04-07T08:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=254706"},"modified":"2026-04-07T08:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:31:19","slug":"bill-ackmans-pershing-square-bids-to-buy-universal-music-group-in-64-billion-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/bill-ackmans-pershing-square-bids-to-buy-universal-music-group-in-64-billion-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square bids to buy Universal Music Group in $64 billion deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pershing Square Capital Management<\/strong> has submitted a non-binding proposal to the board of directors of Universal Music Group N.V.<\/strong> to acquire all outstanding shares of the company through a business combination transaction, the investment firm announced on Tuesday (April 7).<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the proposal, UMG<\/strong> shareholders would receive \u20ac9.4 billion<\/strong> in cash \u2014 equivalent to \u20ac5.05<\/strong> per share \u2014 plus 0.77<\/strong> shares of a newly created company (“New UMG”) for each share of UMG<\/strong> held.<\/p>\n

Pershing Square<\/strong> estimates the total consideration package to be worth \u20ac30.40<\/strong> per share, a 78%<\/strong> premium to UMG<\/strong>‘s closing price on April 2<\/strong>. At that per-share consideration, the proposal implies a total deal value of approximately \u20ac55.8 billion<\/strong> (around $64.4 billion<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

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In the transaction, UMG<\/strong> would merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, Ltd.<\/strong>, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada<\/strong> corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“New UMG<\/strong> will publish financial statements under US GAAP and be eligible for S&P 500<\/strong> and other index inclusion,” Pershing Square<\/strong> said. The deal is expected to close by year-end.<\/p>\n

The transaction would facilitate the cancellation of 17%<\/strong> of UMG<\/strong>‘s outstanding shares while “preserving the company’s investment grade balance sheet,” leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion<\/strong> shares outstanding. All equity financing for the transaction would be backstopped by Pershing Square<\/strong> and its affiliates, with all debt financing “committed at signing,” the firm said.<\/p>\n

“UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”<\/p>\n

Bill Ackman<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Since UMG’s listing, Sir Lucian Grainge<\/strong> and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” said Pershing Square<\/strong> CEO Bill Ackman<\/strong>. “However, UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”<\/p>\n

Pershing Square<\/strong> cited six factors it believes have depressed UMG<\/strong>‘s stock price: uncertainty concerning the Bollor\u00e9 Group<\/strong>‘s 18%<\/strong> stake in the company; the postponement of UMG<\/strong>‘s US listing; the underutilization of UMG<\/strong>‘s balance sheet; the “absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm”; a lack of investor credit in UMG<\/strong>‘s valuation for its \u20ac2.7 billion<\/strong> stake in Spotify<\/strong>; and what it described as “suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications, and engagement.”<\/p>\n

Pershing Square<\/strong> is hosting an investor webcast on Tuesday at 10:00 AM EDT to discuss the proposal.<\/p>\n

<\/div> <\/div> \n
Background<\/h6>\n

Pershing Square<\/strong> first acquired approximately 10%<\/strong> of UMG<\/strong> from Vivendi<\/strong> in the summer of 2021<\/strong> for approximately USD $4 billion<\/strong>, around the time of UMG<\/strong>‘s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam<\/strong> exchange in September 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ackman<\/strong> has since sold down a portion of that position \u2014 raising around USD $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7% stake in March 2025<\/a> \u2014 and resigned from UMG<\/strong>‘s board in May 2025<\/strong>, citing “new executive and board obligations arising from his recent investments.”<\/p>\n

Ackman<\/strong> had long advocated for a US listing of UMG<\/strong>, arguing it would unlock demand from institutional investors unable to purchase non-US-listed securities and improve analyst coverage.<\/p>\n

UMG<\/strong> confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025<\/a> for a proposed secondary listing on a US exchange, but announced in March 2026 that it was putting those plans on hold<\/a>, citing market conditions.<\/p>\n

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The uncertainty surrounding the Bollor\u00e9 Group<\/strong>‘s 18%<\/strong> stake in UMG<\/strong> has weighed on the company’s shares for an extended period.<\/p>\n

Cyrille Bollor\u00e9<\/strong> stepped down from UMG<\/strong>‘s board in July 2025<\/a> as the Bollor\u00e9 Group<\/strong> battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi<\/strong>, which holds a further capital interest in UMG<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

UMG<\/strong>‘s stock has fallen around 33%<\/strong> over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam<\/strong> exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction,” says Ackman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":254707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254708,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254706\/revisions\/254708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}