Universal

 Universal Music Group 

General Information 

·      The headquarters is in Santa Monica in the USA 

·      Chairman and CEO is Sir Lucian Grainge 

·      It is the worlds biggest music rights company 

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History 

·      It was founded in 1996

·      It began when US-based MCA Inc, merged with American Decca in 1962

·      In 1990 a Japanese conglomerate Matsushita Electric bought MCA for $6.59 billion

·      In 1995 Seagram gained control of 80% of MCA in a $5.7bn deal

·      In 1996 MCA was named Universal Pictures and then the music part was named Universal Music Group 

·      Then in 1998, Seagram bought the company PolyGram for $10.6bn which then merged with Universal Music Group 

·      In 2000 Vivendi bought Seagram in all-stock transaction 

·      In 2006, Vivendi had a deal to buy 20% of Matsushita Electric’s which then gave the company full ownership of the music firm 

·      By Vivendi holding 100% of the company gave them control of UMG and owned 20% of NBC Universal 

·      In 2007 Universal Music Group boosted its publishing market share when they bought BMG Music Publishing Catalog 

 

Structure 

·      Universal Music Group is a parent company for other record labels: 

o   The Island Def Jam Music Group –

o   Interscope Geffen A&M 

o   Universal Music Group UK

o   Republic Records 

o   Spinnup

·      The structure of Universal Music Group is fairly simple 

o   Vivendi owns 80% and Tencent-Led Consortium owns 20%

o   Universal Music Group owns 100% of Universal Music Group, Inc and Universal International Music B.V. 

o   Then Universal International Music B.V. is owns 100% by Japan, UK, Germany, France, S Korea, Canada, China, Latin America, Australia