Look. We’ve broken some pretty big news of late. Proper news. But this? Size-of-transaction-wise, this tops the lot.
MBW has confirmed via well-placed sources that Irving Azoff‘s US-headquartered PRO, Global Music Rights (GMR), struck a multi-billion dollar deal yesterday (September 18) with a new private equity partner.
The deal, we’re told, valued GMR at USD $3.3 billion.
It’s understood that Azoff is maintaining a stake in the company, but TPG – his long-time co-owner in GMR – has cashed out.
It’s also understood that the buyer is a private equity firm, Hellman & Friedman, which had USD $120 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM) at the close of 2023.
Moelis & Company managed the process, which one source said “ran like a Swiss watch”.
“This is not just a big win for TPG but for everyone else too,” said another MBW informant with knowledge of the deal.
“Irving Azoff and his team did an amazing deal that’s been years in the making. Hellman & Friedman will now be turning everyone’s heads. And Moelis just landed on the map in music M&A in a major way.”
GMR, led by CEO Randy Grimmett and headquartered in Los Angeles, was founded in 2013.
In recent years the company has represented the catalogs of artists/writers including Harry Styles, Drake, Bruno Mars, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj, Shawn Mendes, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Bad Bunny, Jon Bon Jovi, Lizzo, Journey, Prince, and The Killers.
A licensing and collection society, GMR has been notably aggressive in taking legal action against US broadcasters it feels aren’t correctly remunerating its clients.
In 2022, GMR settled with the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC) – which represents 10,000 commercial radio stations – following a landmark and long-running legal dispute over royalty payments from US radio networks.
GMR’s initial complaint against RMLC in 2016 claimed that the US radio “cartel” controlled more than 90% of radio industry revenue, while reaching what it said at the time was more than 245 million listeners weekly.
GMR obviously isn’t the first for-profit PRO to pull off a giant transaction in the past 12 months.
In a deal that closed in February, BMI was majority-acquired by New Mountain Capital, with Google‘s CapitalG taking a minority stake.
CapitalG has previously invested over $4 billion into 55 companies, including the likes of Airbnb, Stripe and Lyft.
“Our partnership with New Mountain charts an incredibly exciting new course for BMI and our songwriters, composers and publishers,” said Mike O’Neill, President & CEO of BMI, when the deal closed.
Added O’Neill: “New Mountain shares our vision to build value for our affiliates and invest in their future success.
“With their support, advanced level of innovation and resources, we are now in the best possible position to accelerate our growth plan and explore new opportunities to benefit our creative community.”Music Business Worldwide
