iWorld
Lionsgate Play marches into Indonesia market
KOLKATA: Global streaming platform Starz has launched its direct to consumer OTT app Lionsgate Play in Indonesia, expanding its presence in Asia following a successful launch in India. With this, Lionsgate Play’s deep library of Hollywood blockbusters, film franchises and first-to-Indonesia original series and boxsets are immediately accessible to a wide Indonesian audience.
Lionsgate Play Indonesia will bring blockbuster film franchises including The Hunger Games and Twilight Saga, the star-studded global box office hit Now You See Me, Academy Award-winning films from other studios like The Aviator and Babel, romantic drama Remember Me and acclaimed original television series Weeds, Power, Mad Men, and The Spanish Princess directly to Indonesian consumers.
Starz president and CEO Jeffrey A Hirsch said: “Indonesia is an exciting market for us. The large and diverse population, increased data usage in urban and rural markets, and adoption of OTT across all demographics created an exciting opportunity for us to launch Lionsgate Play. We’re confident that our unique, exclusive and exceptionally curated content will generate a great response from Indonesian audiences.”
The service has also launched with an attractive price point in Indonesia, making the app available as part of two subscription models, IDR 35 per month and IDR 179 for a year, price points that give Indonesian consumers the opportunity to enjoy the best of global entertainment affordably and at their convenience. Lionsgate Play content will also be made available through various bundle offerings with key partners such as Telkomsel and Telkom. The attractive price points and flexible availability give Indonesian viewers multiple convenient options to enjoy Lionsgate Play.
Lionsgate Play Indonesia general manager Guntur Siboro believes that the combination of the OTT app launch and the previously-announced partnership with big players Telkomsel and Telkom will bring a seamless customer experience and easy access to Lionsgate Play content for their subscribers. “The partnership allows us to give more Indonesians the best entertainment experience. With a diverse audience reach, Lionsgate Play can be exposed to various levels of society. Everyone can enjoy Lionsgate Play content. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements,” he said.
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.
