Universal, the world’s biggest record label, heads for an IPO

MUSIC FANSSPAC have had to get used to seeing stars perform via video-link, and the same was true of the big performance held on June 22nd to decide the future of Universal Music Group. Shareholders in Vivendi, the record label’s parent company, tuned in to the annual general meeting to chorus their near-unanimous approval of a plan to spin off Universal as an independent firm. The label will launch as a solo act on the Amsterdam stock exchange in September.The vote marked the end of a noisy battle for control of Universal, which accounts for 30% or so of global recorded-music sales. In January Tencent, a Chinese media and e-commerce giant, increased its stake in the label to 20%. Earlier this month it emerged that Daniel Loeb, a New York hedge-fund billionaire, had built up a stake in Vivendi. Then on June 20th Bill Ackman, a rival hedgie, announced that his special-purpose acquisition company was to purchase 10% of Universal for €3.5bn ($4.2bn), the biggest deal so far (and a particularly complex one). Vivendi will itself hang on to 10% of the label; the remaining 60% of shares will be distributed among Vivendi’s shareholders.