Jay Z-led investment group Project Panther Bidco expected to announce that it had fully acquired Tidal and Wimp parent Aspiro this morning – but it turns out the deal’s not quite done yet.
PPB made a €50m bid for Aspiro at the end of January, which was immediately accepted by Aspiro’s investment board, with the majority of its shareholders also saying yes.
A rebel group of stakeholders at the Scandinavian company put up a fight, claiming they had the 10% stake in the company required to block Jay Z’s bid, but last week they eventually relented.
As of morning, 420,699,016 shares have been tendered in the Offer, corresponding to 95% of shares in Aspiro – meaning 5% of investors are yet to accept the PPB offer.
As such, PPB has extended its deadline for Aspiro to “consider and accept” its offer for the company until March 27.
PPB has initiated acquisition of the remaining 5% of shares in Aspiro and requested that the board of directors of Aspiro apply for de-listing from Nasdaq Stockholm.
Aspiro AB posted a net loss of 84.1m SEK (€8.9m) for the last calendar year, off the back of a 22% increase in net revenues to 303.2m SEK (€31.9m).
Aspiro’s board of directors previously unanimously recommended accepting Jay Z’s offer, admitting that Tidal wasn’t profitable and “not fully funded for the coming 12 months”.Music Business Worldwide
