Universal Music Group (UMG), led by Chairman & CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge, is the world’s biggest music rights company.<\/p>\n
UMG was formerly majority-owned by Paris-based Vivendi. Since UMG floated on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange<\/a> in September 2021, it has been 10% owned by Vivendi, 10% owned by Pershing Square Holdings, 20% owned by a Tencent-led consortium, and 60% owned by other shareholders of its stock.<\/p>\n UMG owns and operates frontline record companies including Capitol, Decca, Def Jam, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope, Island, Motown, Polydor, Republic and Virgin EMI.<\/p>\n UMG is also the owner of Universal Music Publishing Group, which is led by Chairman & CEO, Jody Gerson.<\/p>\n In 2020, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd completed the purchase of a 10% stake<\/a> in Universal Music Group in a transaction worth more than $3bn.<\/p>\n UMG, which operates in more than 60 countries, completed the acquisition of EMI Music<\/a> in September 2012 for $1.9bn (\u00a31.2bn). UMG had agreed the buyout of the British music company from then-owner Citigroup in the prior year.<\/p>\n Following scrutiny of the EMI deal by European Commission regulators, Universal subsequently divested Parlophone Music Group<\/a> to Warner Music Group for \u00a3487m in July 2013.<\/p>\n Universal Music Group’s origins began in 1962 when US-based MCA Inc. merged with American Decca.<\/p>\n MCA, now known as Universal Pictures, owned a music division as well as a movie company, and was sold to Japan’s Matsushita Electric for $6.59bn in November 1990.<\/p>\n In April 1995, Seagram acquired a controlling (80%) stake in MCA<\/a> from Matsushita in a $5.7bn deal. The following year, in December 1996, MCA was renamed Universal Pictures, while its music division was relaunched as Universal Music Group.<\/p>\n Then, in May 1998, Seagram acquired music company PolyGram for $10.6bn<\/a>. A year later, Seagram merged PolyGram it into Universal Music Group.<\/p>\n Vivendi acquired Seagram in a $34bn all-stock transaction<\/a> in 2000.<\/p>\n Then, in February 2006, Vivendi struck a $1.154bn deal to buy Matsushita Electric’s 20% stake in UMG \u2013 giving the French company full ownership of the music firm.<\/p>\n The $1.154bn paid by Vivendi saw it acquire Matsushita’s 7.66% stake in a holding group<\/a> \u2013 Universal Studios Holding I Corp \u2013 in which Vivendi already owned over 92%.<\/p>\n Owning 100% of the holding company gave Vivendi full control of UMG, in addition to a 20% stake in NBC Universal (NBCU).<\/p>\n
\nUniversal Music Group: History<\/h6>\n