iWorld
Supreme Court puts OTT and social media sleaze on notice
MUMBAI: The supreme court on Monday fired a warning shot across the bows of the government, streaming giants, and social media platforms, flagging the unchecked spread of obscene and sexually explicit content online.
A bench led by justice B R Gavai and justice Augustine George Masih issued notices to the Centre and a who’s who of Big Tech — Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Meta, X Corp, Google, Apple, Ullu, and ALTT — after a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by journalist Uday Mahurkar and others called for urgent curbs on indecent material floating unchecked across digital platforms.
“This petition raises an important concern,” said justice Gavai, cautioning that the issue was best left to the executive or legislature lest the court be accused of overreach. Nevertheless, he nudged solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, to act: “Do something… something legislative.”
Mehta did not dispute the concerns, describing some content as so perverted “that even two respectable people cannot sit together and watch,” but stressed that censorship was not an option. He added that regulations under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, were in place — and more were under contemplation.
The petitioners, represented by advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, called for the establishment of a National Content Control Authority to monitor and regulate streaming and social media output until a comprehensive law is enacted. The plea warned that without action, the flood of sexually explicit, paedophilic and perverse material could corrupt young minds, fuel deviant behaviour, and trigger a rise in crimes against women and children.
“What was once an individual vice has now become a public menace,” the petition thundered, accusing platforms like X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, and Ullu of promoting explicit content without adequate checks.
While the Supreme Court has not set a timeline for the next hearing, the Centre’s response will be pivotal in shaping how India reins in its booming but increasingly controversial digital content ecosystem. For India’s streaming giants, the party might just be about to face a reality check.
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.
