Hedge funds to hit songs: Trump ally Bill Ackman bids $64 billion for Universal Music

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has offered to buy Universal Music Group — home to musicians such as Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Elton John — in a $64 billion deal.

Universal Music is the world’s largest record company and one of the big three record labels, alongside Sony Music Group and Warner Music.

Ackman, a billionaire supporter of Donald Trump, said in a statement that while the company, led by the British-born Lucian Grainge, had done “an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance”, there are several reasons for its underperforming stock price that are “unrelated to the performance of its music business”.