Cyrille Bolloré, CEO of the Bolloré Group, recommended that Universal Group’s management reject Bill Ackman’s bid to purchase UMG, according to Reuters.
“We think the price is not there at all,” Bolloré said during the shareholders’ annual meeting. “He is not making an offer with his own money. It is our money, the company’s money.”
Bolloré also noted he believed Ackman’s management style would clash with the company culture, claiming that, “he is abrupt, faster.”
Ackman’s Pershing Square (which owns 10% of UMG’s stock) made a non-binding bid to purchase Universal Music for more than $60 billion in April, and the proposed deal would have merged UMG with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings. Ackman also proposed moving the company’s headquarters from Amsterdam to Nevada, and shifting the company’s stock listing from Euronext Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange. Ackman had been calling for the move since 2024 after fans of an Israeli soccer team were attacked in Amsterdam.
Bolloré Group owns 18.4% of UMG shares as of Dec. 31, 2025, according to the company website, and the Bolloré family also serves as a member of the supervisory board of Vivendi SE, which owns 13.4% of UMG’s stock, according to UMG’s shareholders report, making for a total control of just below 32% of UMG. For Ackman’s bid to be approved, a two-thirds majority of shareholders is required to move forward, meaning any deal hinged on Bolloré’s approval.
“I encourage the management of Universal Music to reject it,” Bolloré said during the shareholders’ annual meeting. “As far as I am concerned, it is as if it has been rejected.”
Cyrille Bolloré resigned from his seat as chairman of the board at UMG last July to focus on the Bolloré Group, which has been under scrutiny from French securities regulators, which blocked a proposal for the group to buy out certain companies.
Ackman’s Pershing Square became a UMG shareholder in 2021, and he claimed the company’s share price suffered from uncertainty over Bolloré Group’s 18% stake. Ackman noted business was strong under chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge’s leadership, but wrote that “UMG’s share price has languished.” Upon the news that Ackman had submitted his bid, UMG stock was up more than 8.5%.
Ackman owns a 4.7% stake in UMG and had been a member of the company’s board until last May. UMG’s stock dipped slightly (down 2.6% as of press time) following the news today (May 27). In its latest quarterly earnings report, released at the end of April, the company reported flat year over year Q1 revenue, with revenue up 8.1% in constant currency. The company expects its just-approved deal to buy Downtown Music Holdings to realize some $15-$20 million in savings in the coming years, CFO Matt Ellis said earlier this month.
