UMG Offer Rejected - Pollstar News

Japanese mobile phone carrier and Internet service provider SoftBank reportedly made an unsuccessful $8.5 billion offer for Universal Music Group three months ago.

According to the Financial Times, a source at UMG parent company Vivendi said it “would not entertain such an offer as their whole strategy is based on media and content.”

Analysts are saying that SoftBank’s offer is about $2 billion higher than what Universal Music is really worth, according to their calculations.

One told the newspaper that the music business is showing some signs of life again and therefore he doesn’t expect Vivendi to sell off what amounts to the biggest music label in the world.

What’s even more interesting is that the offer for UMG came before SoftBank made a $21.6 billion offer for Sprint Nextel in June. That deal was closed by SoftBank two weeks ago.