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Paris - French media and telecommunications group Vivendi has rejected an $8.5bn offer by Japan's SoftBank for Universal Music, the world's largest music group, the Financial Times reported.
Vivendi told SoftBank it was not interested because it saw the music company as central to its future strategy, the financial daily reported on its website Thursday, citing sources close to the matter.
Neither Vivendi nor Softbank were prepared to comment on the story.
An $8.5bn offer would value Universal Music at $2-3bn above most analyst estimates, the Financial Times said.
SoftBank's all-cash proposal was not contingent on the outcome of the Japanese group's bid for control of US mobile operator Sprint, it added. The $21.6bn Sprint deal was closed by SoftBank last week.
"The message that Universal Music is not for sale fits with Vivendi's strategy of trying to sell its telecoms holdings and regroup around entertainment assets," the paper said.
A source close to the matter told AFP that "to sell Universal Music was never a possibility for Vivendi in as much as its strategy is based on its content and media".
