Could a Universal Music takeover be in the cards?
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Billionaire activist investor Bill Ackman is making a play for Taylor Swift’s record label in a deal that Reuters values at around $64 billion. Ackman wants his investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, to take over Universal Music Group. This morning, we'll dig into the news. Then, we continue our trip along Route 66 and visit Northern Arizona University, which has designated this academic year the “Year of AI Empowerment.”
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How a campus in the Old West treats very new artificial intelligence. I'm David Brancaccio. First, crude oil remains high, 113 a barrel now, with President Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen a key route for oil just about 13 hours away. |
| 0:19.2 | S&P futures are down 2 tenths percent. NASDAQ futures down |
| 0:22.6 | three-tenths of a percent. U.S. government bonds can be seen as a haven during volatile times, |
| 0:28.0 | not seeing more of that at the moment, though. The 10-year interest rate steady, 4.33%. |
| 0:33.6 | An activist investors making a play for the big record label that has Taylor Swift, among others, |
| 0:40.2 | and a deal valued at around $64 billion. |
| 0:43.3 | Here's Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzor. |
| 0:45.4 | Investor Bill Ackman is behind the deal. |
| 0:48.3 | He wants his investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, to take over Universal Music Group, or UMG. |
| 0:55.7 | Ackman says UMG's stock price has, quote, languished because of issues unrelated to the |
| 1:01.2 | performance of its music business. |
| 1:03.2 | Ackman says those problems would be solved with a transaction he's proposing. |
| 1:07.6 | Ackman wants to merge UMG with Pershing Square Spark Holdings. The new company would be based in Nevada |
| 1:13.8 | and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. UMG hasn't commented on the proposal yet. I'm Nancy Marshall |
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