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Ackman’s Pershing Square Launches $64 Billion Takeover Bid for Universal Music Group (UMG)

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Key Takeaways

  • Pershing Square, led by Bill Ackman, has unveiled a non-binding $64 billion merger proposal with Universal Music Group through its SPARC Holdings vehicle.
  • The bid prices UMG at €30.40 per share, representing a 78% premium over the previous closing price of €17.10.
  • Universal Music Group shares surged approximately 13% following the announcement, while major shareholder Bollore Group climbed around 6%.
  • The proposed merger would create “Nevada Corporation,” which would trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
  • The deal structure includes Michael Ovitz, former Disney president, joining the board as chairman if the transaction proceeds.

Bill Ackman’s investment firm Pershing Square has unveiled a massive $64 billion takeover proposal for Universal Music Group, seeking to combine the Amsterdam-listed music powerhouse with its SPARC Holdings special purpose vehicle in a transaction that would relocate UMG to American markets.

The all-in proposal prices Universal Music Group at €30.40 per share, marking a substantial 78% premium above Monday’s closing price of €17.10. Market reaction was swift, with UMG shares climbing approximately 13% during early Tuesday sessions. Meanwhile, Bollore Group, which maintains the largest ownership position in UMG, experienced a stock increase of roughly 6%.

Universal Music Group has not yet issued a statement regarding the takeover approach.

The offer remains non-binding at this stage. The transaction framework calls for UMG shareholders to receive €9.4 billion in cash consideration alongside 0.77 shares of the newly formed Nevada Corporation for each UMG share owned.

Pershing intends to secure the cash component through multiple channels: SPARC’s rights holders, leveraged financing arrangements, and liquidating its ownership position in Spotify.

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The resulting combined company — tentatively named Nevada Corporation — would obtain a primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange, fulfilling Ackman’s longstanding objective of establishing UMG’s presence in American capital markets.

Ackman’s Strategic Rationale Behind the Proposal

In correspondence addressed to Universal Music Group’s board of directors, Ackman praised management for their “excellent” stewardship of the company’s operations. However, he highlighted persistent underperformance in the stock price since UMG’s 2021 debut on the Amsterdam exchange as the fundamental challenge requiring action.

Ackman identified three primary concerns: market uncertainty surrounding Bollore Group’s 18% ownership stake, postponement of UMG’s previously planned American listing, and what he characterized as insufficient deployment of UMG’s financial resources.

Just last month, Universal Music Group abandoned a previous arrangement with Pershing regarding the pursuit of a U.S. stock exchange listing — a decision that seems to have catalyzed Tuesday’s formal merger proposition.

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Pershing maintains a 4.7% ownership interest in UMG, positioning it as the fourth-largest institutional shareholder based on LSEG information.

Major Stakeholders Remain Silent

Bollore Group, controlling an 18% stake in Universal Music Group, has not issued any public statement. Vivendi, holding the second-largest ownership position, similarly declined to provide commentary. Tencent Holdings, ranked as UMG’s third-largest shareholder, has not responded to inquiries.

The stance of these major investors carries significant weight. A transaction of this magnitude requires substantial shareholder consensus to advance toward completion.

Michael Ovitz, renowned talent representative and former president of The Walt Disney Company, is designated to assume the role of board chairman at UMG should the merger receive approval.

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Pershing Square has indicated it anticipates finalizing the transaction by the conclusion of 2026.

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Analysts eye potential breakdown as BTC price repeats familiar pattern: Crypto Markets Today

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Analysts eye potential breakdown as BTC price repeats familiar pattern: Crypto Markets Today

The crypto market is trading sluggishly within the range it has held for two months, with bitcoin changing hands at $69,000 and ether (ETH) at $2,130.

The range-bound pricing dates back to Feb. 6, with several peaks between $72,000 and $75,000 and troughs between $62,000 and $65,000.

A similar two-month pattern occurred between November and January before a price breakdown, leading analysts to suggest a similar scenario may play out this time around.

Much still depends on the conflict in Iran, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of “obliteration” falling on deaf ears thus far. Brent crude oil remains at $107 per barrel, which will have a knock-on effect on inflation over the course of the year unless it declines.

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Derivatives positioning

  • The market continues to consolidate as bitcoin open interest (OI) stabilizes at $16.7 billion, little changed from last week and indicating that speculative activity remains flat.
  • Funding rates have moved into a neutral 0%-6% range, following a period of negative funding that likely fueled the initial relief rally through short covering.
  • With the three-month annualized basis also little changed over the week, institutional conviction remains cautious, suggesting that while the immediate downside pressure has eased, the big players are not yet positioning for a major breakout.
  • Options sentiment is stabilizing as call dominance reaches 47% and one-week skew drops to 16% from 19% last week. However, the implied volatility term structure’s front-end backwardation confirms that traders are still prioritizing immediate downside protection over long-term growth expectations.
  • CoinGlass data shows $163 million in 24-hour liquidations, with a 60-40 split between longs and shorts. BTC (64 million), ETH ($35 million) and others ($16 million) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations.
  • The Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $69,500 as a core level to monitor in case of a price rise.

Token talk

  • The altcoin market has been surprisingly buoyant recently, despite broader market apathy. Since midnight UTC privacy tokens zcash (ZEC) and dash (DASH) rose by 6.7% and 3.1%, respectively, and there were also notable gains for FET, PUMP and RENDER.
  • The bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index gained 0.3% on Tuesday, while being outpaced by the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) and CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS), a sign of the relative strength of altcoins compared with crypto majors.
  • The recent bounce in altcoins has not been uniform, however. AI tokens, privacy tokens and the likes of HYPE and ALGO have performed well, while other market segments have tumbled. Over the past 90 days ethena (ENA) has lost 66% of its value, while TIA, LDO, SUI and ARB have all fallen by more than 50%.
  • That’s a divergence from previous cycles, when altcoins moved in unison. It now appears the market is maturing to a point where assets may be moving based on real-world impact, as opposed to hype and overzealous roadmaps.

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Bitcoin up, software stocks down since the war began

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Bitcoin up, software stocks down since the war began

Since the outbreak of the war with Iran on Feb. 28, bitcoin has started to diverge from software equities, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV), serving as a useful proxy for the sector.

Bitcoin has been one of the strongest-performing assets during this period, rising more than 5% and trading back above $69,000, including a gain of more than 0.5% over the past 24 hours.

IGV, in contrast, has fallen more than 2% since the conflict began. That gap suggests investors are starting to treat bitcoin and software stocks differently, at least in the near term.

Until recently, the two had moved closely together. Over the past three months, bitcoin fell 26% and the ETF lost 23%. Year to date, both are lower by about 21%. Over five years, bitcoin has gained 18% compared with 10% for IGV. In other words, both have moved in the same direction, but the cryptocurrency has done so with much greater volatility.

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That is also clear in their declines. Bitcoin had fallen roughly 50% from its October all-time high, while IGV, which peaked slightly earlier, fell about 35% from its own top.

The correlation data tells the same story. From early February, bitcoin and IGV were almost perfectly correlated, close to 1.0, meaning they were moving nearly in lockstep. After the war began, that relationship broke down sharply, with the correlation dropping to 0.13, a level that signals near decoupling, before rebounding to around 0.7. The figure can range between -1.0 and +1.0, with 0 indicating no correlation at all.

Why have software stocks been hit harder?

IGV is heavily weighted toward large software and services companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL) and Salesforce (CRM). Investors are increasingly worried that artificial intelligence will compress margins and valuation multiples across software, especially in Software as a Service (SaaS), as competition rises and barriers to entry fall. Bitcoin, meanwhile, is trading more like a macro asset, benefiting from geopolitical uncertainty.

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Bitcoin Trader Eyes Bear Market Bottom as Stochastic RSI Mimics 2023

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Bitcoin Trader Eyes Bear Market Bottom as Stochastic RSI Mimics 2023

Bitcoin (BTC) is copying the end of its 2022 bear market “nearly perfectly,” according to a new BTC price analysis.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin stochastic RSI values are “nearly perfectly” repeating the end of its last bear market, new analysis claims.

  • Both recent local bottoms and the current rebound echo conditions from three years ago.

  • Standard RSI is already on the radar for a potential BTC price bottom signal.

Bitcoin stochastic RSI echoes 2023 rebound

In an X post on Monday, crypto trader Quantum Ascend revealed copycat moves playing out on Bitcoin’s stochastic relative strength index (RSI) indicator.

Stochastic RSI, also known as “stoch RSI,” is a derivative of traditional RSI — a classic leading indicator that helps traders identify overbought and oversold conditions, as well as BTC price trend changes.

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Like its standard counterpart, stoch RSI flashes “oversold” price signals when it drops below 30/100 on its scale, with “overbought” entering when its value is above 70/100.

Stoch RSI moves between those two zones much more quickly, but Quantum Ascend sees a key long-term bull signal now locking in.

“RSI at the EXACT SAME point on the Daily as it was in 2022,” he told X followers.

BTC price and stochastic RSI comparison. Source: Quantum Ascend/X

An accompanying comparative chart shows stoch RSI making a double bottom along with price before both surged higher in early 2023. At the time, BTC/USD had recently set a multiyear low of $15,600 — a level that ended up forming the bear-market bottom.

Now, Quantum Ascend says, the repeat performance is “playing out nearly perfectly.”

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“Breaking above the EXACT SAME level (blue line). At the EXACT SAME time,” he added.

The chart reveals that stoch RSI is now attempting to clear its 50/100 midpoint after two local lows in late January and late March, respectively.

BTC price counts down to bear flag decision

RSI signals have already been firing in 2026 despite lackluster BTC price strength.

Related: First real bull signal since 2025? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

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As Cointelegraph reported, eyes are on weekly standard RSI to print a bullish divergence with price, again mimicking early 2023.

At the time, weekly RSI set its lowest level on record — one so far not matched in 2026, per data from TradingView.

BTC/USD one-week chart with RSI data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin still faces bearish hurdles to recovery, with traders concerned about a bear-flag breakdown repeating on the daily chart.

“In few days we will understand if the pattern is repeating or not,” analyst Aksel Kibar wrote on X over the weekend.

BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Aksel Kibar/X