London-based ticketing platform DICE is in advanced talks to sell a significant stake in the company, potentially valuing it at “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Bloomberg reported Sunday (July 14), citing “a few people directly involved,” that the decision to explore a sale came after the company was approached by a potential buyer in recent months. SoftBank, one of DICE’s major investors, is reportedly keen to sell its stake.
The sources reportedly suggest that at least three private equity firms are among the interested parties.
DICE has raised more than $200 million in funding. In August 2023, MBW reported that DICE had raised $65 million in a round led by MUSIC, the investment company co-founded by Matt Pincus and LionTree. Other investors in that round were Structural Capital and Ahdritz Holding LLC, the investment vehicle for Willard Ahdritz, founder and chairman of Kobalt Music.
In 2021, DICE raised $122 million from its Series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Other investors included iPod inventor and iPhone co-inventor Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Blisce, French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, Mirabaud, Cassius and Evolution.
The reported sale talks also come as DICE continues to grow its live events business, reporting over 55,000 artists and 10,000 venues using its platform across 30 cities in 2023.
The company recently announced the launch of a new marketplace on its app, which it says has the potential to boost revenue from events by 30%. This month, DICE rolled out DICE Extras as the first product to be sold in the marketplace. DICE Extras will then be integrated into the ticketing platform, to “easily create, manage, report on, and market their add-ons… directly to their target audience on DICE,” the company said in late May.
In 2021, DICE launched Merch on DICE, which allowed artists to engage in limited-run “product drops” ahead of live events. DICE ventured into livestreaming in 2020 amid the pandemic. Faced with increasing competition from heavyweights like Ticketmaster and CTS Eventim, DICE bought livestreaming platform Boiler Room in October 2021.
This latest development comes amid a resurgence of deals in the live events sector.
In May, international concert and festival promoter FKP Scorpio acquired Nordic Exhibitions & Events AB, a Swedish events promoter, and renamed it FKP Scorpio Entertainment Nordic.
Less than a month ago, investment giant KKR acquired European festival operator Superstruct Entertainment from private equity firm Providence Equity Partners for a reported EUR €1.3 billion (USD $1.42 billion), while Blackstone acquired a minority stake in Ambassador Theatre Group, which operates historic venues in London and New York.
In April, Paris-headquartered multinational media giant Vivendi agreed to sell two subsidiaries within its Vivendi Village group, the UK-headquartered See Tickets and Vivendi Village’s festivals division, which operates multiple live events in the UK and Europe, to CTS Eventim.
Bloomberg said the flurry of activity stems from both individual company circumstances and broader economic shifts. Several companies are on sale by private equity firms that initially attracted investment five or six years ago, the news service reported.
For instance, Providence Equity Partners acquired Superstruct in 2017 and invested in TAIT in 2019. Bloomberg noted that firms like Providence typically hold assets for five or six years, making it a normal time frame for them to sell.
Bloomberg noted that other factors are also influencing the flurry of transactions, including the pandemic, which impacted dealmaking.
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