Tencent bought Universal Music after several months of negotiations. A consortium led by Chinese group Tencent Holdings agreed to purchase 10% of the world’s largest music company, Universal Music Group, from Vivaldi.
Thanks to this agreement, the value of Universal Music reaches US $33.6 billion and allows Tencent and its partners to increase the stake to 20% for the same price before January 15, 2021, the companies said in a mutual statement.
The French group that owns Universal Music represents artists like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and The Beatles and tried to take advantage of the growing value of the music business, because of the popularity of streaming services, revenues are growing rapidly. Tencent could bring Universal Music closer to consumers in Asian markets which receive little attention from major record labels.
Hillhouse Capital and the Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte. are among the potential investors Chinese tech giant approached, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News in November. Vivendi revealed the talks with Tencent in August and Chinese company bought Universal Music in January 2020.
