BUSINESS
Tencent’s greatest hits
August 7, 2019 - Chinese internet giant Tencent is in talks to buy up to 20% of Universal Music Group (UMG) which has been revived by a surge in global music-streaming sales.
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The deal values UMG, a subsidiary of French media conglomerate Vivendi, at around €30 billion ($34 billion), as both firms look to expand in a recovering global streaming music market.
Global music-streaming retail sales are expected to more than double to $45 billion by 2026 from $19.6 billion in 2018, according to UK-based media analysis firm Midea.
Vivendi said on Tuesday that Tencent would first buy 10% of UMG, the world’s largest music company. UMG is home to artists including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and the Beatles.
Tencent already holds stakes in the world’s most popular music streaming service, Sweden’s Spotify as well as U.S. mobile game makers Glu Mobile and Epic Games (Fortnite), Finland’s Supercell (Clash of Clans), and Grinding Gear Games, based in New Zealand.
Tencent Music Entertainment Group boasted 654 million monthly active users on its platforms at the end of the first quarter, compared with Spotify’s 232 million monthly active users and Apple Music’s 60 million users at the end of June.