Vivendi's Universal Music, the world's largest seller of recorded music, is catapulting to the top spot in music publishing as well, having agreed to buy BMG Music Publishing for 1.63 billion euros, or about $2.1 billion, writes Reuters. The German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, BMG Music Publishing's parent company, will pay Vivendi $60 million to settle litigation related to financing it once provided to file-sharing service Napster.

Vivendi, the French media and telecommunications group, topped offers from six other bidders for BMG Music Publishing, which owns the rights to thousands of songs, including ones by Coldplay, Christina Aguilera and Barry Manilow. Vivendi had been seen as a frontrunner in the auction since it was tipped off that Bertelsmann would sell BMG earlier this year.

Other bidders included Warner Music Group and a team that included media conglomerate Viacom and private equity firm Apollo.