Music Business Worldwide
It’s one of the key valuation and advisory players in music’s blockbuster M&A market. Now, Citrin Cooperman (CC) has an interesting new owner… and a mammoth price-tag.
A Blackstone-led investor group has majority-acquired New York-headquartered CC, buying out the firm’s previous investor, New Mountain Capital.
The Financial Times reports that the deal gives Citrin Cooperman – which claims to be one of the largest professional services firms in the United States – an enterprise value of over $2 billion.
New Mountain Capital is a familiar name to MBW readers, of course. It’s the tech-savvy private equity company that acquired a majority-stake in BMI last year, in a billion-dollar-plus deal.
New Mountain originally acquired its controlling stake in Citrin Cooperman in 2021, giving the latter firm – at the time – an enterprise value of $500 million.
Citrin Cooperman, founded in 1979, provides tax, advisory, and accounting services to various businesses and high-net-worth individuals.
In the music industry, Citrin is best known as the home of expert music rights valuer Barry Massarsky and his team.
Citrin Cooperman acquired Massarsky’s company, Massarsky Consulting, in 2022 (the year after New Mountain acquired its majority-stake in CC). Massarsky consequently became a Partner in Citrin Cooperman.
Massarsky Consulting, which valued deals worth over $6 billion in 2021, worked on M&A transactions with/for companies including Downtown, Reservoir, BMG, SONGS, Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing, and Warner Chappell Music.
Massarsky (and then Citrin) was also the long-time, go-to independent valuer of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, after that firm floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2018.
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have already spotted something of a tangle in this web.
Funds affiliated with Blackstone (which now owns Citrin Cooperman) acquired Hipgnosis Songs Fund in a take-private deal last summer worth $1.584 billion.
(We shall see, but this conflict may naturally lead to Citrin recusing itself from certain valuation duties for Blackstone-controlled music assets in future.)
Blackstone majority-acquires Citrin Cooperman, one of music’s biggest valuation firms
