Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management said April 7 it is offering to buy Universal Music Group in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at about $64 billion, in a move that would fold the music company into Pershing Square’s acquisition structure. The proposal would merge Universal Music with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, Pershing Square said, and would seek to change where the combined company is based and where its shares trade.

Pershing Square said it is seeking to buy Universal Music in a cash-and-stock deal that values the transaction at 30.40 euros per share, or $35.12. Using its estimate of Universal Music’s outstanding shares, Pershing Square said the offer implies a value of about 56 billion euros for the company.

The deal would involve Universal Music merging with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, an acquisition company approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, according to Pershing Square. Pershing Square also said the new company would be based in Nevada and that its stock listing would move from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.

Ackman said UMG’s stock price has been held back by factors he described as unrelated to the performance of its music business. In a statement Tuesday, Ackman said, “UMG’s 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.”

Pershing Square said Universal Music shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, or 5.05 euros per share, and would also receive 0.77 shares of the newly created company’s stock for each share of Universal Music that they own. Universal Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the Associated Press reported.

Pershing Square said the transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year. The company also noted that Ackman previously walked away from a deal that would have given him a 10% stake in Universal Music in 2021, citing questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission at the time about whether a special-purpose acquisition company structure would allow such an acquisition under rules of the New York Stock Exchange.

In the immediate market reaction reported by The Associated Press, shares of Universal Music rose more than 10% in midday trading in Amsterdam after the offer was announced.

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