{"id":1357,"date":"2026-06-04T19:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:10:27","slug":"bill-ackman-to-sell-290-5-million-in-stock-back-to-universal-music-after-rejected-takeover-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1357","title":{"rendered":"Bill Ackman to Sell $290.5 Million in Stock Back to Universal Music After Rejected Takeover Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tFresh off of rejecting a takeover proposal from capital fund Pershing Square, Universal Music has announced it is repurchasing a sizable portion of its stock back from the company founded and operated by billionaire investor Bill Ackman.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe world\u2019s largest record company will repurchase over 14.2 million shares from Pershing, worth about $290.5 million (\u20ac250 million), as part of the fund\u2019s complete unwinding of its position in Universal Music. Pershing has 80.6 million shares to unload, per Bloomberg. Universal Music\u2019s stock is down 3.25% today.<\/p>\n

\n\tUniversal Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Variety<\/em> on any plans to acquire more of Pershing\u2019s stake in the company beyond the share buyback announcement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe news sets up the conclusion of a relatively longstanding financial relationship, which culminated in Universal\u2019s rejection of a proposition from Pershing that arrived early last month.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn April, Ackman\u2019s company made an out-of-the-blue announcement that it had submitted a takeover proposal to Universal Music\u2019s board of directors \u201cdesigned to deliver significant benefits to UMG stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPershing had previously acquired 10% equity in Universal Music through two transactions in 2021; those deals were worth about $4 billion combined.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tUniversal Music and its leadership have \u201cdone an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and [in] generating strong business performance,\u201d said Ackman in a statement. \u201cHowever, UMG\u2019s stock price has languished 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<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week, Universal Music rejected the bid \u201cbecause it fundamentally and materially undervalues UMG and will not deliver superior value creation,\u201d the company wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat attempted takeover is a cornerstone of Pershing\u2019s business \u2014 what\u2019s known as \u201cactivist investing,\u201d in which a fund buys a significant equity stake in a company to push through changes that would positively impact its stock price.<\/p>\n

\n\tPershing Square did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Variety<\/em> on Universal Music\u2019s rejection or details around the unwinding of its position in the company.<\/p>\n

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Bill Ackman is poised to sell $290.5 million in stock back to Universal Music Group after a rejected takeover offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1302,1303,1266],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-bill-ackman","tag-pershing-square","tag-universal-music-group"],"yoast_head":"\nBill Ackman to Sell $290.5 Million in Stock Back to Universal Music After Rejected Takeover Offer - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1357\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bill Ackman to Sell $290.5 Million in Stock Back to Universal Music After Rejected Takeover Offer - 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