iWorld
‘Tenet’ to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on 31 March
KOLKATA: Amazon Prime Video has got the long weekend locked and loaded with the premiere of Christopher Nolan's much anticipated sci-fi spy thriller Tenet on 31 March 2021. The film will be available for Indian audiences in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, John David Washington plays an international spy who journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold into something beyond real time. Filmed across seven countries, this intense thriller will see a time travelling protagonist risking his own life to stop the inevitable catastrophe that could be bigger than World War III and a nuclear holocaust. Will he make it ‘back in time’ to save the world? Viewers will get the answer soon.
Tenet will join thousands of TV shows and movies from Hollywood and Bollywood in the Prime Video catalogue. These include Indian-produced Amazon Original series Tandav, Mirzapur Season 1 & 2, Comicstaan Semma Comedy Pa, Breathe: Into The Shadows, Bandish Bandits, Paatal Lok, The Forgotten Army – Azaadi Ke Liye, Sons of the Soil: Jaipur Pink Panthers, Four More Shots Please, The Family Man, Made In Heaven, and Inside Edge.
Prime Video’s extensive library also includes Indian films such as Coolie No. 1, Gulabo Sitabo, Durgamati, Chhalaang, Shakuntala Devi, Ponmagal Vandhal, French Biriyani, Law, Sufiyum Sujatayum, Penguin, Nishabdham, Maara, V, CU Soon, Soorarai Pottru, Bheema Sena Nala Maharaja, Drishyam 2, Halal Love Story, Middle Class Melodies, Putham Pudhu Kaalai, Unpaused among others; and award-winning and critically acclaimed global Amazon Originals like Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, The Boys, Hunters, Fleabag, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Prime members will be able to watch Tenet anywhere and anytime on the Prime Video app for smart TVs, mobile devices, Fire TV, Fire TV stick, Fire tablets, Apple TV, etc. In the Prime Video app, Prime members can download episodes on their mobile devices and tablets and watch anywhere offline at no additional cost.
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.
