iWorld
Helo and India Film Project partner for ‘Campus Connect season 2’
MUMBAI: Helo and India Film Project have partnered for season 2 of Campus Connect. The partnership aims to encourage content creators at grassroots level and provide them a platform to showcase their talent to a wider audience.The association also allows Helo’s diverse community to explore fresh and professionally generated content in addition to learning filmmaking techniques directly from IFP’s reputed mentors.
As part of this initiative, Helo and IFP are organising workshops followed by a 24-Hour filmmaking challenge in 20 of India's leading colleges including IIM Ahmedabad, IIT (Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Hyderabad), Hindu College, DTU etc. Helo is also hosting an in-app contest called #IFPMyMovie2020, for users to engage and create videos across various themes such as education, social responsibility, emotions, food, entertainment and humour. The winners of the contest stand a chance to win exciting prizes, including a chance to feature their videos in flagship India Film Project event in October.
Helo has emerged as one of the biggest hubs for the most innovative user and professionally generated content in 14 different Indian languages. The project has been successfully executed in 16 colleges until now and has till today witnessed a participation from over 8000 students. Campus Connect in the second season is looking forward to witnessing more than 800 short films made in multiple Indian languages as well as more than 10,000 enthusiastic creators across the workshops held in different parts of the country sharing their ideas and love for the films.
Helo Creator Strategy and Growth head Raj Mishra said, “At Helo, we are committed to empower budding content creators with best possible opportunities to showcase their creativity through our platform. Our partnership with IFP for campus connect 2 is a testimony of our endeavour to bring the best quality content on our platform and foster an enabling environment of cross learning. We have received an overwhelming response from our existing users and are confident that this association will further motivate and encourage like minded people to connect, create and share quality content in their native languages.
India Film Project founder Ritam Bhatnagarsaid, “At IFP we strive to bring the best experience and opportunities to content creators across the country. Campus Connect helps us connect, encourage, interact and help the young talent that our country has. With Helo’s large and growing user base, we are able to provide a huge audience to the young filmmakers who are usually looking for more viewers. We are glad to have Helo on board with all the opportunities, exposure and incentives they have to offer for the participants.”
Helo users can participate in the contest by creating videos under hashtags #IndiaFilmProject2020, #IFPMyMovie2020. The national project is slated to end on 30th April 2020.
iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
