Summary Jay Z has to amend his original offer for a 90-percent stake in the company
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Minority owners of Norwegian music streaming service Wimp announced Wednesday they had blocked rap mogul Jay Z s $56-million bid and said the ball was now in the rap star s court.
Over 10 percent of the minority owners of Wimp s parent company Aspiro had rejected the bid, meaning Jay Z has to amend his original offer for a 90-percent stake in the company, the Swedish Shareholders Association said in a statement.
"The bidder has not reacted, either by withdrawing the bid, raising the offer or lowering" the percentage sought, it said.
The minority owners -- who believe Jay Z s bid undervalued the company s future potential -- had yet to hear back from from the platinum-selling artist.
Jay Z used his controlling stake in Project Panther Bidco to launch a 464-million-kronor ($56-million, 49-million-euro) bid for Aspiro that was accepted early on by majority owner Schibsted, which controls 76 percent of the Swedish-listed company.
At the end of the third quarter of 2014, Wimp said it had 512,000 paying users in Scandinavia, Germany and Poland.
That is a far cry from its Nordic rival Spotify, a pioneer in the streaming music business with over 15 million paying subscribers.
Jay Z s expected takeover of Wimp would see the rapper vie for a slice of the music streaming-market pie, with Apple having acquired Beats Music from another rap star, Dr Dre, in a much publicised $3.2-billion deal last year.
In addition to several music-related ventures Jay Z has branched out into fashion and last year bought the champagne brand Armand de Brignac, which boasts an ace of spades on its label.
