iWorld
TO THE NEW Digital bets high on video content management
MUMBAI: Digital services company TO THE NEW Digital, has made a mark in the digital ecosystem with Fortune 500 clients like Sony, P & G, Airbus, Time Warner Cable and Nike. The company reached another milestone as it leveraged the power of videos by publishing 2.5 lakh hours of online video content and 1 lakh hours of YouTube channel management for different clients.
TO THE NEW Digital CEO Deepak Mittal says, “Digital revolution has compelled companies to capitalize on new-age communication tools. Video management is the need of the hour for brands to get the maximum out of their video content. At TO THE NEW Digital, we provide end-to-end video optimization and distribution services to promote video content to relevant target audience. We are delighted that we have earned trust of the best brands in the market.”
As per TO THE NEW Digital’s market analysis, by 2020, Asia will be the largest hub for social networkers and mobile operators with about 60 percent digitally-inclined population. Driven by this estimation, TO THE NEW Digital plans to be at the forefront of exploding digital landscape, creating eye-catching content, promoting technocratic practices for the existing and emerging businesses as a sure-shot method of achieving unwavering success, and ultimately delivering the best digital solutions.
ETV, a large network of satellite TV channels in India, approached TO THE NEW Digital to optimize, publish and manage its content on YouTube channel for their 17 regional channels. ETV wanted a 24×7 support system and operations to increase visits and traction through video SEO services. TO THE NEW Digital helped them increase their monthly subscriber growth rate by 254 percent.
Digital multi-channel network #Fame also engaged TO THE NEW Digital for end-to-end services for their multi-channel content publishing, management and promotion to increase viewership/subscriptions. By deploying analytics-driven content curation, contextualization and multi-platform content publishing, #Fame achieved a significant growth in their monthly viewership rate.
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.
