Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square on Tuesday proposed merging its acquisition vehicle with Universal Music Group with a plan to list in the US in a deal aimed at reviving the world’s biggest music label’s value.
Pershing Square’s cash-and-shares offer values Universal Music at around €30.40/share, representing a 78% premium to last close price at €17.10 and making the deal worth €55.8-billion (R1.1-trillion).
Ackman is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Holdings, a New York-based activist investment firm. Known for high-profile, concentrated bets on companies including Herbalife, Valeant and Chipotle, he has also become a prominent and outspoken voice on social and political issues.
Universal Music Group — the company behind recording artists including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Drake — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Amsterdam-listed entertainment company’s shares jumped around 13% in the early trading on Tuesday, while top shareholder Bollore Group’s were up 6%.
Pershing’s move comes after UMG last month delayed a plan for a US listing, walking back on an agreement with Pershing, which had exercised its right to request a US offering and had argued a New York listing would boost UMG’s share price and liquidity.
NYSE listing
In a letter to UMG directors, Ackman said its management had done an “excellent” job of running a strong business and strategic execution, but its share price has languished since its listing in 2021.
He blamed uncertainty over the 18% stake held by Bollore Group, the delay to the planned US listing and underutilisation of its balance sheet, among other things.
Under Tuesday’s non-binding proposal, Pershing’s Sparc Holdings would merge with UMG and the new entity would become a Nevada corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Talent agent and former Walt Disney Co president Michael Ovitz would join the UMG board as chairman, Pershing Square said.
Pershing Square said that under the transaction, UMG shareholders would receive a total of €9.4-billion in cash and 0.77 shares in the new company for every share held in UMG.
The cash portion of the new proposed deal would be funded by Pershing from Sparc’s rights holders, debt and net proceeds from the company’s stake in Spotify, it said.
Bollore Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Vivendi, which is UMG’s second largest shareholder, did not comment on the proposal. Tencent Holdings, UMG’s third biggest shareholder, did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, Pershing Square said. It has a 4.7% stake, according to LSEG data, making it UMG’s fourth biggest shareholder. — Gnaneshwar Rajan and Mateusz Rabiega, with Che Pa in Beijing, Inti Landauro, Mathieu Rosemain and Jerome Terroy, (c) 2026 Reuters
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