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Vivendi Weighing A Partial Sale Of UMG

Universal Music Group
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PARIS, France (CelebrityAccess) — Universal Music’s parent company Vivendi SA is reportedly weighing selling as much as half of the label giant, which some estimates say is worth $29 billion.

According to a report in Bloomberg, Vivendi has met with financial advisors and held informal talks with potential buyers in recent weeks.

Sources at Vivendi told Bloomberg that the company’s management has met with at least two private equity companies and that other possible suitors include Apple and John Malone’s Liberty Media.

Several Asian companies, including Japan’s Softbank and Chinese internet giants Tencent, which launched an IPO for its streaming service in North America last year, and Alibaba, have also expressed an interest in the deal, Bloomberg reported.

Vivendi’s interesting in selling a major stake in the company was revealed in July at the same time that Vivendi backed away from plans to hold an IPO of their own. The current valuation of the company is up sharply from previous estimates, with Deutsche Bank setting estimates at $33 billion, up from estimates of about $20bn at the end of 2017.

Universal, considered to be one of the ‘big three’ alongside Warner Music Group and Sony, includes labels such as Republic, Def Jam, Capitol Music Group, EMI, Verve, UMG Nashville and numerous others. The label group also has Universal Music Publishing Group, which features the second largest catalogue of music, with more than 3 million songs, behind only Sony/ATV.

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