Activist investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management is offering to purchase Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny's music label, Universal Music Group, in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $64 billion.
The proposed deal would involve Universal Music merging with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, an acquisition company approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023. Plans would include the new company being based in Nevada and moving its stock listing from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.
“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,” Ackman said in a statement on Tuesday.
The total cash-and-stock value of the deal is estimated at 30.40 euros per share, or $35.12. That puts Universal Music's value at approximately 56 billion euros based on its outstanding shares.
Universal Music shareholders will receive 9.4 billion euros in cash (or 5.05 euros per share) and 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 proposed transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year, according to Pershing Square.
In 2021 Ackman walked away from a deal that would have given him a 10% stake in Universal Music. At the time, Ackman cited questions from the SEC about whether the structure of a special-purpose acquisition company would allow such an acquisition under the rules of the New York Stock Exchange.
Shares of Universal rose more than 10% in midday trading in Amsterdam.
FILE - Taylor Swift performs during "The Eras Tour" on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon said on Monday that Russia has confirmed the deaths of 16 soldiers in Ukraine, according to a memo addressed to the Russian Embassy in the central African country.
In the memo addressed to the embassy, the country’s foreign affairs ministry acknowledged the death of 16 Cameroonian soldiers serving in the special military operations zone in Ukraine. The ministry said “necessary arrangements” had been made to contact the families of the deceased soldiers.
A separate message sent the same day invited the families of six other Cameroonian nationals living in Russia to come to the ministry for “urgent matters” concerning them. It did not give further information.
In March last year, Cameroon’s defense minister instructed the country's various military high commands to take “strict emergency measures” to prevent further defections by active or retired Cameroonian soldiers.
Ukraine has said it believes more than 1,700 Africans have been recruited to fight for Russia, and several African nations have said some of their citizens have been tricked into fighting for Russia by offers of lucrative jobs or skills training.
An intelligence report presented to parliament in Kenya earlier this year said that 1,000 Kenyans were recruited to fight for Russia after being misled with false promises of jobs in the country before being sent to the front lines.
Two Nigerians were killed late last year fighting for Russia, Ukraine’s intelligence agency said this month.
Another AP investigation in 2024 found that African women were also duped into being part of the Russian war effort and sent to work in a factory assembling attack drones to be used against Ukraine. They were lured by social media adverts offering work-study programs.
FILE - Ukrainian servicemen fire a Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions at the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko, File)
