Ticketing specialist Eventbrite has entered into an agreement to acquire its rival Ticketfly from Pandora for $200 million.
The deal, which is expected to close in Q3, is being funded through a combination of $150 million cash and a $50 million note payable to Pandora.
Pandora agreed to acquire Ticketfly for $450m in the first half of October 2015 – but, when the deal came to the crunch, that number fell due a tumble in Pandora’s share price.
Pandora ended up buying the ticketing business at the close of the same month for a total concern of $335.3m, of which it paid $191.5m in cash – with the rest made up of common stock.
In addition to the Ticketfly buyout, Eventbrite has inked a partnership with Pandora to ‘extend the benefits already proven out with the Pandora and Ticketfly integration’.
Ticketfly works with over 1,800 of the top music promoters and venues across North America, supporting 100,000 events per year which generate $600 million in gross ticket sales.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and we see immense alignment and opportunity with this union, especially as we continue to expand Eventbrite’s global footprint in music,” said Julia Hartz, CEO and co-founder of Eventbrite.
“Together with Ticketfly, we will focus our collective energy on further developing our unparalleled solution and superior service s for indie music venues and promoters around the world.”
Julia Hartz, Eventbrite
“Together with Ticketfly, we will focus our collective energy on further developing our unparalleled solution and superior services for indie music venues and promoters around the world.”
Ticketfly’s co-founder and CEO Andrew Dreskin will lead Eventbrite’s music efforts.
“We are happy to be joining forces with our friends at Eventbrite,” said Dreskin. “Ticketfly and Eventbrite are the two most progressive live events technology companies out there, and together we will create a transformational platform that will be game-changing for independent venues and promoters.
“We plan to build on the great work that Ticketfly and Pandora have d one and offer the benefits of that partnership to Eventbrite’s customers, delivering even more live event notifications to Pandora listeners.”
“The combination of Ticketfly and Pandora proved our thesis that listeners want easy access to live events, and that we have the ability to promote and sell tickets at scale in a highly targeted way,” said Tim Westergren, CEO and founder of Pandora.
“We look forward to expanding the opportunity to bring fans and artists together through our continued partnership with Eventbrite and Ticketfly.”
Eventbrite acquired rival Ticketscript in January to become Europe’s third-largest ticketing provider.
Pandora has just taken on a $480m investment from SiriusXM.
SiriusXM purchased $172.5 million of Series A preferred stock upon execution of the agreement and has agreed to purchase the rest at a second closing, which is expected to close by the end of the year – with an official deadline of February 1, 2018.Music Business Worldwide
