Blondie and 50 Cent music rights owner to be acquired for £1.3bn after first deal crushed

Music rights investor Hipgnosis is set to be acquired by private equity giant Blackstone for $1.6billion (£1.3billion) after rival suitor Concord effectively conceded defeat.

Last month Hipgnosis, which owns the rights to songs by acts ranging from Blondie to Neil Young, Barry Manilow, the Red Hot Chili Peppers to rapper 50 Cent, accepted a £1.2billion offer from US music investor Concord.

However, Blackstone crashed the deal tabling its offer in late April.

Concord said that its £1.2billion offer is final and that it will not raise it, clearing the way for Blackstone to acquire Hipgnosis. The deal is expected to complete in the third quarter.

Broker Numis declared the auction for Hipgnosis over. It said: “We do not expect any other competing offers, as we expect these would have come out of the woodwork already.”

Hipgnosis was launched in 2018 and quickly built a portfolio currently comprising 138 catalogues with more than 40,000 songs, generating copyright and royalty income streams.

Its impending sale to Blackstone ends a turbulent nine months for the music investor and its shareholders, who have watched Hipgnosis’ value plunge amid rows with its founder and investment adviser over governance, conflicts of interest and valuations.

Chairman Robert Naylor was parachuted into Hipgnosis in November in a bid to engineer a sale of the company and help investors recoup their money.