{"id":256177,"date":"2026-04-29T17:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=256177"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:00:18","slug":"universal-is-selling-50-of-its-spotify-stake-generating-around-1-4-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/universal-is-selling-50-of-its-spotify-stake-generating-around-1-4-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal is selling 50% of its Spotify stake, generating around $1.4 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universal Music Group<\/strong> will sell half of its equity stake in Spotify<\/strong> and use the proceeds to help fund an expanded share buyback program totaling EUR \u20ac1 billion (USD $1.17 billion)<\/strong>, the company confirmed on Wednesday (April 29) alongside its Q1 2026 results.<\/p>\n

The decision comes three weeks after Bill Ackman<\/strong>‘s Pershing Square<\/strong> launched a $64 billion takeover bid for UMG<\/a> that proposed liquidating the company’s entire Spotify<\/strong> stake to help fund the deal.<\/p>\n

UMG<\/strong>‘s board has yet to make a decision on the Ackman<\/strong> proposal.<\/p>\n

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A UMG<\/strong>\u00a0press release on Wednesday confirmed: “Consistent with the Company’s approach to artist compensation, artists will share in the proceeds. UMG’s share will initially be directed towards its buyback program.”<\/p>\n

That commitment to artist participation in any Spotify<\/strong> sale dates back to 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Later that year, at the request of Taylor Swift<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0UMG<\/strong> agreed to distribute any proceeds to its artists on a non-recoupable basis, matching a policy previously adopted by Sony Music.<\/p>\n

According to UMG<\/strong>‘s 2025 annual report, the company holds 6,487,000<\/strong> Spotify<\/strong> shares \u2014 equivalent to a 3.10%<\/strong> stake in the streaming platform \u2014 valued at \u20ac3,214 million<\/strong> as of December 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

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Based on Spotify<\/strong>‘s closing share price on Tuesday (April 28), 50% of UMG<\/strong>‘s stake is currently worth approximately $1.4 billion (\u20ac1.2 billion)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, that comes after Spotify<\/strong>‘s shares fell double-digits on Tuesday after the streaming platform’s Q2 operating-income guidance landed below Wall Street expectations.<\/p>\n

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The expanded buyback authorization brings UMG<\/strong>‘s total share repurchase commitment to \u20ac1 billion<\/strong> \u2014 doubling the \u20ac500 million program announced on March 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The additional \u20ac500 million<\/strong> authorization is subject to shareholder approval at UMG<\/strong>‘s 2026<\/strong> Annual General Meeting on May 13<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

UMG<\/strong> said its board “considers UMG’s share price to be undervalued relative to its business performance and prospects.”<\/p>\n

Pershing Square<\/strong> has cited the same valuation gap as the rationale for its takeover proposal: UMG<\/strong>‘s shares are down approximately 30%<\/strong> over the past year, despite continued growth in its underlying business.<\/p>\n

“The important steps we are announcing today to increase our share buyback authorization and monetize a portion of our equity stake in Spotify<\/strong> will lead to enhanced shareholder value while maintaining the flexibility the Company requires to drive further success,” said Matt Ellis<\/strong>, UMG<\/strong>‘s CFO.<\/p>\n

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On Wednesday’s call, Grainge<\/strong> said the Spotify<\/strong> monetization “underscores the importance of our capital discipline, the expected returns from our buybacks and our confidence in the long-term growth of UMG<\/strong>, as well as the broader music ecosystem.”<\/p>\n

The UMG<\/strong> chief added that the company would not be commenting further on the Ackman<\/strong> proposal until the board completes its review.<\/p>\n

UMG<\/strong>‘s Q1 2026 revenues came in at \u20ac2,900 million ($3.39 billion)<\/strong>, flat year-over-year and up 8.1%<\/strong> in constant currency, partly reflecting the consolidation of Downtown Music Holdings<\/strong><\/a>, plus “initial pricing benefits of Streaming 2.0 agreements”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UMG will sell half of its equity stake in Spotify and use the proceeds to help fund an expanded share buyback program totaling EUR \u20ac1 billion (USD $1.17bn)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256203,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256177\/revisions\/256203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}