Billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s hedge fund has made an offer to acquire Universal Music Group (UMG) in a transaction that values the world’s largest music company at approximately €55bn (£48bn). Pershing Square, the New York-based investment firm, has proposed a cash-and-stock takeover of the company, whose artists include global names such as Taylor Swift and Elton John. In a statement, Ackman said that under the leadership of British-born Sir Lucian Grainge, the company had done “an