iWorld
Infobip creates a new digital experience for tennis fans
Mumbai: The global cloud communications platform Infobip this week offers visitors and fans of the ATP Plava Laguna Croatia Open in Umag access to all tournament details through a new WhatsApp chatbot. As the tournament’s technology partner, Infobip has a tennis tournament chatbot to provide a seamless digital experience for visitors and tennis fans globally, helping boost engagement.
Now the entire digital experience takes place through the ATP Umag Chatbot. The app has been created on Infobip’s chatbot-building platform Answers and WhatsApp Business, one of the most popular communication channels on Infobip’s cloud communications platform.
Infobip chief product officer Adrian Benić said, “Together with the Plava Laguna Croatia Open, we are redefining the interaction between tennis fans and a globally recognised tournament. In the palm of their hand and with just a few moves, visitors and tennis fans worldwide can get all the necessary details about the tournament using the popular chat application WhatsApp. This chatbot also provides a continuous user journey regardless of where fans are based.”
In one place, tennis fans and Croatia Open Umag attendees can find out details about the players, the tournament, the schedule, draw, daily entertainment agenda, tickets, and book accommodation. Also, every ATP Umag Chatbot user on WhatsApp can participate in a quiz with prizes.
“In addition to the fact that all spectators can follow the matches of young global tennis stars like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, they can now also be part of a real digital experience. In Infobip, we recognised a great partner with whom we made a significant tech leap in the presentation of the tournament and its additional content,” said Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag director Tomislav Poljak.
The ATP Umag Chatbot on WhatsApp can be activated by sending the keyword “Hi” to the number +385 99 537 1830, which must first be saved in contacts, or by clicking on the link. All tournament visitors can also activate the chatbot by scanning a QR code located across all ATP Umag properties, including at the tournament, on social media, in printed brochures and tickets.
“It’s great to see that fans and spectators can be even more involved in tennis events and more connected to tournaments through this digital way, compared to when I was playing. The possibilities of this type of interaction are numerous, and Infobip, as a leader in the global cloud communications market, is the ideal tech partner for ensuring optimum audience engagement in this global sporting event,” said former Olympics medalist and world Top 10 Mario Ančić. Mario is a partner at One Equity Partners, which is a strategic investor in Infobip.
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.
