{"id":2579,"date":"2026-05-29T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/29\/universal-music-group-rejects-bill-ackmans-64b-takeover-proposal-it-fundamentally-and-materially-undervalues-umg\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:08:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:08:00","slug":"universal-music-group-rejects-bill-ackmans-64b-takeover-proposal-it-fundamentally-and-materially-undervalues-umg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/29\/universal-music-group-rejects-bill-ackmans-64b-takeover-proposal-it-fundamentally-and-materially-undervalues-umg\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music Group Rejects Bill Ackman\u2019s $64B Takeover Proposal: \u201cIt Fundamentally and Materially Undervalues UMG\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tUniversal Music Group<\/a>\u2018s board of directors has rejected Bill Ackman<\/a> and Pershing Square\u2019s $64 billion acquisition proposal<\/a>, saying Friday that the deal \u201cis not in the best interests of UMG, its shareholders,\u00a0artists, songwriters, employees and other stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAfter careful review\u00a0with the assistance of outside financial and legal advisors, the Board has rejected the proposal\u00a0because it fundamentally and materially undervalues UMG and will not deliver superior\u00a0value creation,\u201d the board said in a statement. \u201cThe Board has heard from many of UMG\u2019s shareholders and other stakeholders and believes there is a strong consensus supporting the Board\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tReps for Ackman and Pershing Square didn\u2019t immediately respond to request for comment. <\/p>\n

\tIn a statement, UMG chairman of the board Sherry Lansing said that UMG \u201chas built an unrivalled position in the music industry through clear vision and strong execution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Board has full confidence in Sir Lucian and his team\u2019s ability to deliver sustainable growth and continued value creation for all stakeholders,\u201d Lansing said. <\/p>\n

\tAckman and Pershing Square first bought into UMG back in 2021, with Ackman joining UMG\u2019s board that year and leaving in 2025. He\u2019d first floated Pershing Square\u2019s acquisition proposal back in April, with the company arguing that UMG\u2019s stock \u201clanguished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.\u201d Among the changes he\u2019d proposed was to move UMG\u2019s listing from Europe to New York. <\/p>\n

\tThe board announced its official rejection of Ackman\u2019s proposal just days after Cyrille Bollor\u00e9, the CEO of UMG shareholder Bollor\u00e9, made public comments <\/a>similarly arguing the proposal undervalues the world\u2019s largest music company. <\/p>\n

\tIn its rejection announcment, UMG touted its recent stock buyback program, as well as its move to sell off half its stake in Spotify <\/a>in a deal worth around $1.4 billion at the time of the announcement. UMG says its adjusted EBITDA has grown about 70 percent since it listed back in 2021. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe remain committed to leading the industry by attracting the world\u2019s top talent,\u00a0deepening fan engagement\u00a0globally, and driving innovation,\u201d UMG CEO Lucian Grainge said in a statement Friday. \u201cCentral to that mission is fostering an environment that\u00a0champions human creativity,\u00a0protects artists, songwriters, and entrepreneurs,\u00a0and expands\u00a0opportunities for growth and success.\u00a0As we execute\u00a0\u00a0our\u00a0strategy\u00a0and\u00a0deliver maximum long term value, we look forward to providing shareholders\u00a0with greater\u00a0insight into the drivers\u00a0of our performance\u00a0and future direction\u00a0of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal Music Group\u2018s board of directors has rejected Bill Ackman and Pershing Square\u2019s $64 billion acquisition proposal, saying Friday that the deal \u201cis not in the best interests of UMG, its shareholders,\u00a0artists, songwriters, employees and other stakeholders.\u201d \u201cAfter careful review\u00a0with the assistance of outside financial and legal advisors, the Board has rejected the proposal\u00a0because it fundamentally and materially undervalues UMG and will not deliver superior\u00a0value creation,\u201d the board said in a statement. \u201cThe Board has heard from many of UMG\u2019s shareholders and other stakeholders and believes there is a strong consensus supporting the Board\u2019s decision.\u201d Reps for Ackman and Pershing Square didn\u2019t immediately respond to request for comment. In a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1576,2,91,1449,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bill-ackman","category-hollywood","category-music","category-music-industry-news","category-universal-music-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}