BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission said on Friday it would investigate Universal Music Group’s planned $775 million acquisition of independent music services company Downtown Music, confirming earlier media reports.
“The transaction threatens to significantly affect competition in certain markets of the music value chain, where both companies are active, in Austria and in the Netherlands, as well as in many other member states,” it said in a statement.
The commission said it has asked UMG to officially report the deal, since the company cannot move forward with it without first receiving approval from regulators.
Founded in 2007, New York-based Downtown began as a music publishing company and has since grown to serve over 5,000 business clients and more than four million creators across 145 countries. It works with a broad network that includes entrepreneurs, songwriters, rights holders, and artists.
Virgin Music Group, a unit of UMG, in December proposed to acquire Downtown Music in an all-cash deal.
UMG, the world’s leading music label representing global stars like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, told Reuters in an emailed statement that it remains committed to working with the European Commission. It said it was confident the deal would close according to the original timeline.
Virgin Music Group and Downtown Music would merge after the deal closes, expected in the second half of 2025.
European independent music labels group Impala in a statement said it welcomed the Commission’s decision to investigate the merger.
“Impala agrees that the deal poses serious competition threats that are incompatible with the functioning of the internal market”, it said.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Anusha Shah; Editing by Makini Brice, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Joe Bavier and Tomasz Janowski)
