Universal Republic Records was owned by Universal Music. It was reverted from its now-recurring name Republic Records, founded in 1995 by The Lipman Brothers, during the MCA era. The name switch happened in 2006 when Universal Records was merged with Republic after Universal Motown was formed under the Universal Motown Republic Group, bringing this label along.
In 2011, UMRG was disbanded, causing Universal Motown to re-emerge back to Motown, taking Universal Records with that label and Republic. Meanwhile, Universal Republic (in September 2012) was reverted back to Republic. The Universal Republic back catalogue is handled by Republic under UMe.