Pershing Square’s Universal Music Group Bid: What You Need to Know – Billboard

Trending on Billboard Following billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman and his Pershing Square company’s 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’ and shareholders’ questions. The bid — an effort to revive UMG’s lagging stock price — 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’s stock price will be 30.40 euros ($35) a share, which would value the company at more than $60 billion. However, if shareholders choose to take all cash, they will get 22 euros a share — the equivalent of a nearly 29% premium from the stock’s 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’s valuation would be 40.34 billion euros ($46.5 billion). Below are highlights from the call. Related How likely is it that Pershing’s bid will succeed? Pershing will need the support of two-thirds of shareholders who attend a shareholder meeting for its proposed offer to succeed. (No
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