Vincent Bolloré rejects Ackman’s $64bn Universal Music bid
Vincent Bolloré has formally turned down Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square offer for Universal Music Group, ending the largest take-private attempt in music-industry history.
Vincent Bolloré has formally rejected Bill Ackman’s $64bn offer for Universal Music Group, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday, ending Pershing Square’s seven-week campaign to take the world’s largest recorded-music company private.
The rejection, conveyed through Bolloré’s holding structure rather than UMG’s own board, was the outcome that almost every credible analyst had forecast since the offer landed in April.
The arithmetic always pointed here. Bolloré controls roughly 28% of UMG through his Vivendi stake. Ackman’s offer would have valued the company at a premium to its Amsterdam listing but at, on Bolloré’s own published estimates, a meaningful discount to the asset’s fair value.
JPMorgan’s analysts laid out the rejection logic in early April: Bolloré does not need cash, has spent years buying UMG shares rather...
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