{"id":248414,"date":"2026-04-07T15:12:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2026\/04\/07\/pershing-squares-universal-music-group-bid-what-you-need-to-know-2\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:12:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:12:52","slug":"pershing-squares-universal-music-group-bid-what-you-need-to-know-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2026\/04\/07\/pershing-squares-universal-music-group-bid-what-you-need-to-know-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pershing Square\u2019s Universal Music Group Bid: What You Need to\u00a0Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tFollowing billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman<\/strong> and his Pershing Square company\u2019s announcement of a non-binding offer<\/a> to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) on Tuesday (April 7), Ackman and other Pershing executives held a call to address analysts\u2019 and shareholders\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe bid \u2014 an effort to revive UMG\u2019s lagging stock price \u2014 involves a 9.4 billion euros ($10.85 billion) total cash, or 5.05 euros per share ($5.82), offer to shareholders. Pershing projects that by the end of the year (Dec. 31, 2026), UMG\u2019s stock price will be 30.40 euros ($35) a share, which would value the company at more than $60 billion. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, if shareholders choose to take all cash, they will get 22 euros a share \u2014 the equivalent of a nearly 29% premium from the stock\u2019s April 2 closing price of 17.1 euros ($19.73). With about 1.833 billion shares outstanding, if all investors took the cash offer, the company\u2019s valuation would be 40.34 billion euros ($46.5 billion).<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow are highlights from the call.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NEW<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tBill Ackman\u2019s Pershing Square Bids to Buy UMG For Over $60\u00a0Billion\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"David<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t‘People Forget That Relationships Are The Real Currency In Business’: David Grutman on How to Succeed in Nightlife & Hospitality (Book Excerpt)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Vans<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t‘That’s What This Is All About’: Kevin Lyman on 30 Years of Vans Warped Tour and What Comes Next\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tHow likely is it that Pershing\u2019s bid will succeed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPershing will need the support of two-thirds of shareholders who attend a shareholder meeting for its proposed offer to succeed. (No shareholder meeting has yet been called.) Much of UMG\u2019s stock is concentrated in the hands of a handful of shareholders, including Bollor\u00e9 Group, which altogether controls around 28%.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn July 2025, the chairman and head of Bollor\u00e9 Group,\u00a0Cyrille Bollor\u00e9<\/strong>, resigned from his seat on UMG\u2019s board. At the time, French regulators had issued a decision with the potential to cause the Bollor\u00e9 Group to \u201cwrite a big check\u201d to complete the acquisition of some companies it partially owned, Ackman said on the call. Bollor\u00e9\u2019s unexpected resignation, which the company said would allow him to focus on other responsibilities, coincided with a decline in UMG\u2019s stock price, as some in the market speculated that the Bollor\u00e9 Group may sell some of its UMG holdings.<\/p>\n

\n\tAckman said he spoke to representatives of the Bollor\u00e9 Group on Monday (April 7) and that they were intrigued by the offer: \u201cThe words I got back were, \u2018These [words] are music to my ears.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAckman said he expects the offer to get Tencent and other big UMG shareholders\u2019 support, but that it can still succeed even if not all of those big shareholders vote in favor of it. The proposal also requires UMG board approval.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Universal<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tUniversal Music Group Announces $574M Share Buyback\u00a0Program\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tWhy did they disclose their offer to the public?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAckman said near the beginning of his presentation that they publicly disclosed the offer to jump-start conversations with UMG shareholders.<\/p>\n

\n\tAckman\u2019s greatest complaint \u2014 and the biggest potential asset in carrying out his plan \u2014\u00a0is UMG\u2019s share price, which is down 39% from its peak and 23% lower than the closing price on its first day of trading more than four years ago. The company previously traded at a multiple of more than 30 times, and it now trades at a 15.6 times multiple.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEffectively what\u2019s happening here is, we are using a merger to effectuate significant corporate change of the company, changes in the balance sheet of the company, changes in the board of directors of the company, changes in the dividend policy and a re-listing of the company or listing of the company on the New York Stock Exchange,\u201d Ackman said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLucian Grainge\u2019s contract and \u201cno changes\u201d to management<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPershing executives said they anticipate no changes to the leadership of the company, which they say is running well.<\/p>\n

\n\tAckman said that while there should be no major costs related to a change of control of the company, there are contractual agreements with certain executives, including UMG Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge<\/strong>. Pershing\u2019s offer includes a condition that it can reset or redo Lucian\u2019s contract, Ackman said.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"General<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tUMG Settles $500M Lawsuit Against Believe & TuneCore Claiming Fake Songs by \u2018Kendrik\u00a0Laamar\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\t\u201cMy view is, his contract is much too complicated, and there\u2019s an opportunity to restructure [it] in a way that makes sense,\u201d Ackman said. \u201cBut other than Lucian\u2019s [contract], I do not believe there\u2019s any employee-related change of control that is triggered as part of this arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn August of last year, Grainge\u00a0topped Billboard\u2019s<\/em> list of the best-paid<\/a> music executives for the third time in four years for his 2024 compensation of $39.6 million \u2014 about $2.5 million more than SiriusXM CEO\u00a0Jennifer Witz<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tGrainge\u2019s 2024 earnings were low compared with previous years, however.\u00a0In 2021<\/a>, Grainge\u2019s $258.1 million worth of bonuses \u2014 all paid by former parent company Vivendi \u2014 pushed his total earnings to $308.2 million.\u00a0In 2022<\/a>, his earnings returned to a more normal $49.7 million before\u00a0surging to $150.3 million in 2023<\/a>, due mainly to a $100 million \u201ctransition award\u201d that moved him from all-cash compensation to a mix of cash and equity that\u2019s typical for public company executives.<\/p>\n

\n\tUsing AI to its advantage<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPershing executives dismissed questions from analysts about threats to UMG\u2019s revenue from AI-generated works, and instead pointed to what they say are revenue-making opportunities.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom automating A&R to \u201cbeing able to predictively figure out who might chart or who might break out on social media\u201d and better engaging with fans, Pershing partner Feroz Qayyum<\/strong> said AI will make UMG\u2019s business more efficient.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese are all ways that UMG can better use AI to make their business more efficient and their catalog even more valuable,\u201d Qayuum said.<\/p>\n


\n \"Billboard
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Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman and his Pershing Square company\u2019s announcement of a non-binding offer to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) on Tuesday (April 7), Ackman and other Pershing executives held a call to address analysts\u2019 and shareholders\u2019 questions. The bid \u2014 an effort to revive UMG\u2019s lagging stock price \u2014 involves a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}