Mail.ru plans to buy music licensing partner for $ 100 million

Mail.ru Group recently signed an option agreement to purchase 80% of its music licensing partner United Media Agency (UMA). 20% already belong to Mail.ru, the company bought them in May of this year, as reported by TASS.

For Mail.ru, UMA is a media content monetization tool. "The option is concluded in the framework of the company's strategy to expand opportunities for users of social networks and with the rapid growth of the permanent subscriber base of music services over the past two years," the report says.

The option expires on May 21, 2020. At the same time, the purchase of the remaining Mail.ru share requires the consent of the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.

According to representatives of Mail.ru, cooperation with UMA made it possible to normalize relations with rightholders, creating one of the largest music ecosystems on the Russian market. At the same time, the company continues to look for new opportunities to strengthen relations with copyright holders.
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“Our services that provide access to content, including music content, have become a major factor in the steady growth of user engagement,” said Boris Dobrodeev, general director of Mail.ru Group (Russia). He also added that the company expects growth in the subscriber base, for its part, it will expand its portfolio of services.

After all 100% of UMAs are transferred to Mail.ru, the latter will become the sole owner of the BOOM application, offering the possibility of streaming and caching music. The number of BOOM subscribers exceeds 1 million, it is one of the most profitable applications in both the Apple App Store and Google Play (Russian markets).

UMA is an aggregator and distributor of content on the Internet and mobile environment, created in 2014. The company is engaged in the licensing of media content, its distribution on the partner Internet sites and in its own products. In July 2016, the company signed partnership agreements with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Merlin Network and other copyright holders.