The outcome that became inevitable the moment Cyrille Bolloré stood up at his company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday (May 27) and said “as far as I am concerned, it is as if it has been rejected” was made official on Friday (May 29). Universal Music Group’s Board of Directors announced it has unanimously rejected the unsolicited, non-binding takeover proposal submitted by Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management on April 7, 2026, stating the bid “fundamentally and materially undervalues UMG and will not deliver superior value creation.” The board said it had “heard from many of UMG’s shareholders and other stakeholders” and believes there is a “strong consensus” supporting the rejection.
The proposal that UMG’s board turned down had valued the company at approximately €55.8 billion, or $64.4 billion, representing a 78% premium to UMG’s closing share price on April 2. Under its terms, shareholders would have received €9.4 billion in cash and 0.77 shares of new stock for each UMG share held. The plan called for merging UMG with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, reincorporating in Nevada, and shifting the primary listing from Euronext Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange. Ackman’s central argument was that UMG’s stock had been suppressed by structural factors unrelated to the underlying business: its non-US listing, analyst coverage gaps, and the market’s failure to fully price in its Spotify equity stake. He argued a NYSE listing would unlock institutional investor demand that Amsterdam structurally prevents. As FTM covered when the bid was announced, Ackman had acknowledged from the start that the transaction was impossible without Bolloré’s support, telling investors on his presentation call that his first call before launching the proposal had been to the Bolloré Group, and that their initial response was “music to my ears.”
That response had apparently changed significantly in the weeks since. Vincent Bolloré owns 18.4% of UMG directly and Vivendi holds an additional 13.4%, giving the Bolloré family combined control of over 31% of UMG’s shares, enough to block any deal requiring shareholder approval. When Cyrille Bolloré addressed shareholders on Wednesday, he was unsparing on every dimension of the bid. “We think the price is not there at all,” he said. “He is not making an offer with his own money. It is our money, the company’s money.” He also criticized Ackman’s management style and expressed support for UMG’s current strategy under Sir Lucian Grainge. Bolloré acknowledged Ackman was “a very smart investor” who had raised “interesting” points on cash allocation and AI opportunities, but framed the next five to six years as a critical growth period for UMG in superfan subscriptions, live music, geographic expansion, and merchandising, none of which he believed required a change of ownership or listing to execute. Allegiant Stadium
