Eventbrite has completed its “game-changing” purchase of Ticketfly from Pandora in a $200m (£155m/€180m) deal.
The price of the ticketing platform is less than half the $450m Pandora paid for it little more than 20 months ago, despite Ticketfly consistently recording double-digit surges in revenue.
Under the terms of the deal, Eventbrite and Ticketfly said they plan to deliver a market-defining solution for independent venues, promoters and festivals, and are expected to process more than 200 million tickets globally, generating approximately $4bn in gross ticket sales this year.
“The union of Eventbrite and Ticketfly changes the game for the music industry. Our respective customers will benefit immensely from access to the best of what each company brings to the table,” said Julia Hartz, chief executive and co-founder of Eventbrite.
“Eventbrite’s proven track record of innovation and global scale combined with Ticketfly’s deep industry relationships and domain expertise is underpinned by a shared commitment to independence, and unparalleled service to our customers.”
Eventbrite bought Nvite and Ticketscript during the first half of 2017, while also illustrating its potential through a partnership with social media giant Facebook.
Ticketfly currently 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.
Ticketfly co-founder and chief executive, Andrew Dreskin, who is joining Eventbrite to lead the company’s music efforts, said: “We are happy to be teaming up with our friends at Eventbrite. This deal brings together the two most progressive live event technology companies to form a powerhouse for independent music venues and promoters the world over. We will combine the best of both our platforms into one game-changing solution, the likes of which has never before been seen. This is going to be a heck of a lot of fun!”
Eventbrite has ticketed more than 175,000 concerts and music festivals helping them sell more than $1bn in tickets since inception. It said it is on track to process close to 200 million tickets worth $3bn in gross ticket sales in 180 countries in 2017.
Ticketfly will continue to partner with Pandora to support its live events through the app and enable its promoters to automatically reach more fans and sell tickets in a highly-targeted way.
“Eventbrite and Ticketfly joining forces represents the best of both worlds for us. It brings together two great and vastly experienced teams that have industry and technology expertise in spades,” said Kevin Arnold, founder of Noise Pop Industries, one of the US’ leading independent music promoters.
“The recent pace of innovation between these two companies has been astounding, and we look forward to seeing where they will go together to help push the whole industry forward.”
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