By Mateusz Rabiega and Leo Marchandon
April 7 (Reuters) – Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has offered to buy Universal Music Group via its acquisition vehicle in a $64 billion deal that would move the world’s biggest music label’s listing to New York from Amsterdam.
The non-binding offer, representing a 78% premium to UMG’s previous close, follows years of back and forth between Pershing and UMG’s board, with Ackman pushing for the group to be listed in the United States.
Here are some of the major milestones since Pershing acquired its stake in UMG:
June 2021 – Pershing Square buys a 10% stake in UMG from the Bolloré family’s Vivendi for around $4 billion, following private talks ahead of UMG’s debut on the Amsterdam bourse.
September 2021 – UMG shares start trading in Amsterdam after being spun off from Vivendi, leaping more than a third and giving the group a market value of 47 billion euros ($54 billion).
September, 2023 – Pershing Square establishes its affiliate SPARC Holdings, and says it will begin to pursue business combination opportunities with “private, high-quality, growth companies”.
SPARC is a variation of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the market for which has cooled since its peak in 2021 as investors nursed losses on many deals.
November 2024 – Ackman says in a post on X that he is seeking to eliminate Pershing’s Amsterdam listing and that he has begun talks with UMG to move its domicile and listing to the U.S., following attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam.
Ackman, who sits on UMG’s board of directors, says in the post that Pershing has a contractual right to cause the record label to be listed in the United States.
UMG responds by saying Ackman has no right to require it to become a U.S.-domiciled company or delist from Amsterdam bourse.
It says that Pershing has the right to request a listing in the U.S. provided that a Pershing owned entity sells at least $500 million in UMG shares as part of the process.
January 2025 – Ackman reduces his stake in UMG to 7.48% from 10%. UMG says Pershing has exercised its right to request an offering and a secondary listing of the music label in the U.S., adding it would launch an offering for the sale of certain shares owned by Pershing.
In a post on X, Ackman says Pershing will complete the sale of the required $500 million worth of UMG’s shares to move forward with the listing.
March 2025 – Ackman confirms Pershing has sold some of its shares in UMG.
May 2025 – Ackman resigns from his non-executive position at UMG’s board, citing new executive and board obligations stemming from recent investments.
July 2025 – Cyrille Bolloré, the CEO of Bolloré Group that owns an 18% stake in Universal Music, resigns from the UMG board of directors to focus on the family holding company.
The Bolloré family owns a further 13% of UMG through Vivendi, chaired by Cyrille’s brother Yannick.
March 2026 – UMG puts plans for a U.S. listing on hold, saying uncertain market conditions have pushed its valuation to a level it considered to be lower than what it is worth.
($1 = 0.8648 euros)
(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Matt Scuffham)
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