American billionaire and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has launched an effort to acquire Universal Music Group (UMG), one of the world’s largest music ownership labels. The idea is to merge UMG with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings Ltd., Ackman’s specialized acquisition vehicle. Reportedly, the deal would create a corporation called New UMG, based in Nevada.
The speculative acquisition cost that we have seen is $64 billion. UMG’s tock listing would move from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.
A finance-based discussion of the speculative acquisition from Bloomberg Podcasts is on YouTube HERE.
If there is a roadblock to this plan, it could be the Bollore’ family led by Vincent Bollore’; the family owns slightly more than 30% of UMG across multiple financial structures.
UMG stock spiked considerably in the wake of this news, as the five-day chart below indicates.
UMG’s stock is currently represented on Euronext Amsterdam, and would be moved to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) if the acquisition is accomplished. If executed, current shareholders would receive 5.05 Euros ($5.84) per share.
Interestingly, an artist payout is reportedly planned which would sell UMG’s stake in Spotify. The label giant acquired that stake when the streamer first started in 2008, and still owns that piece. The partial ownership is now reportedly valued at more than $3 billion. The two companies refurbished their relationship with a new, multi-year licensing agreement in 2025.
The attempted takeover requires approval from two-thirds of UMG. French billionaire Vincent Bollore’ controls about 28% of Spotify, and Tencent Holdings owns 11%. (See RAIN’s coverage of Tencent’s 2019 maneuvers HERE.)
UMG’s stock is currently represented on Euronext Amterdam, and would be moved to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) if the acquisition is accomplished. If executed, current shareholders would reportedly receive 5.05 Euros ($5.84) per share.