{"id":49618,"date":"2026-06-04T11:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/universal-music-shares-fall-as-ackman-sells-1-5b-stake\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T11:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:35:30","slug":"universal-music-shares-fall-as-ackman-sells-1-5b-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/universal-music-shares-fall-as-ackman-sells-1-5b-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music shares fall as Ackman sells $1.5B stake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Universal Music shares fell on Thursday after billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management sold its remaining stake in the world’s largest music company, ending a five-year investment that is expected to generate profit of at least $600 million.<\/p>\n

The disposal involved approximately 80.6 million Universal Music shares valued at more than $1.5 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report.<\/p>\n

The move marks Pershing Square’s complete exit from a company that had been one of its most prominent investments since 2021.<\/p>\n

Universal Music shares fell as much as 7.6% in early European trading before trimming some losses.<\/p>\n

By mid-morning, the stock was still down about 6%, extending its decline for the year to nearly 20%.<\/p>\n

Exit follows rejected takeover proposal<\/h2>\n

The sale comes only months after Pershing Square’s attempt to acquire Universal Music through a proposed transaction valued at roughly $65 billion was rejected by the company’s board.<\/p>\n

Universal said at the time that the offer undervalued the company, which owns the rights to artists including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Kendrick Lamar.<\/p>\n

The proposal also faced opposition from the company’s largest shareholder, France’s Bollore Group.<\/p>\n

The Bollore family controls about 18.5% of Universal’s equity and nearly 40% of its voting rights, giving it significant influence over strategic decisions.<\/p>\n

Ackman had proposed combining Universal with Pershing Square Sparc Holdings and ultimately pursuing a US listing.<\/p>\n

Universal currently trades on Euronext Amsterdam, although it maintains operational headquarters in Santa Monica, California.<\/p>\n

Universal repurchases part of its stake<\/h2>\n

Separately, Universal Music said it repurchased 250 million euros worth of its own shares from Pershing Square under an existing 500 million-euro buyback programme.<\/p>\n

The company acquired approximately 0.8% of its outstanding shares at a price of 17.66 euros each, representing an 8% discount to Wednesday’s closing price.<\/p>\n

A long and profitable investment<\/h2>\n

Ackman’s relationship with Universal dates back to 2021, when he initially attempted to purchase a 10% stake through a special purpose acquisition company.<\/p>\n

Regulatory concerns ultimately derailed that structure, prompting Pershing Square to acquire the stake directly instead.<\/p>\n

The hedge fund purchased shares at an average price of 18.27 euros ahead of Universal’s spin-off from French media group Vivendi.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Ackman repeatedly praised Universal Chief Executive Lucian Grainge and argued that the company’s market valuation failed to reflect the strength of its music assets and business model.<\/p>\n

Pershing Square had already reduced its position last year, selling about $1.4 billion worth of Universal shares at 26.55 euros each.<\/p>\n

Analysts see a negative signal<\/h2>\n

While the sale was not entirely unexpected following the failed takeover proposal, analysts said the move could still weigh on investor confidence.<\/p>\n

ING analysts David Vagman and Maxime Stranart said Pershing’s departure carried symbolic significance because of Ackman’s long-standing support for the company.<\/p>\n

“While Pershing’s move isn’t a surprise after Universal Music rejected its offer, it is bad news for the company nevertheless,” the analysts wrote in a research note.<\/p>\n

“The exit by a fan with such high visibility sends a negative signal of its own.”<\/p>\n

Despite the market reaction, Pershing Square’s investment in Universal ranks among the firm’s more successful long-term holdings, generating substantial gains even as the music company’s shares have struggled over the past year.<\/p>\n

The post Universal Music shares fall as Ackman sells $1.5B stake<\/a> appeared first on Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal Music shares fell on Thursday after billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management sold its remaining stake in the world’s largest music company, ending a five-year investment that is expected to generate profit of at least $600 million. The disposal involved approximately 80.6 million Universal Music shares valued at more than $1.5 billion, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}