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Pandora sheds Ticketfly in return to “core priorities”

Troubled streaming service Pandora has sold Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200m as it welcomes $480m in new investment from Greg Maffei's SiriusXM

By IQ on 12 Jun 2017

Andrew Dreskin, Ticketfly

image © Ticketfly

Ending weeks of speculation, Pandora Media has announced the sale of Ticketfly, the ticketing business it acquired for US$450 million in October 2015, as it refocuses its on its core subscription music-streaming service.

The buyer: Eventbrite, which has paid $200m – $150m cash and $50 in a note payable to Pandora – to make Ticketfly its third major acquisition of the year (after Ticketscript in January and US start-up Nvite in April).

Ticketfly grew substantially under Pandora ownership, increasing turnover 25% in Q1 2017 and by the same amount across 2016 as a whole. Its founder and CEO, Andrew Dreskin, will now lead Eventbrite’s music efforts.

“We are happy to be joining forces with our friends at Eventbrite,” he comments. “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 done and offer the benefits of that partnership to Eventbrite’s customers”

Dreskin (pictured) says Ticketfly/Eventbrite will continue to work with Pandora to deliver in-app concert recommendations, a feature rolled out in July last year. “We plan to build on the great work that Ticketfly and Pandora have done and offer the benefits of that partnership to Eventbrite’s customers, delivering even more live event notifications to Pandora listeners,” he adds.

The sale of Ticketfly comes as satellite radio service SiriusXM – a division of Liberty Media, which owns a third of Live Nation – invests $480m in Pandora, which has struggled to stem its massive quarter-on-quarter losses ($132.3m in Q1 2017).

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, also chairman of the board of Live Nation, says the investment reflects SiriusXM’s desire to move into ad-supported digital radio.

“Liberty Media has long recognised the strength of the Pandora brand and the opportunities in the ad-supported digital radio market,” he says. “We are very supportive of SiriusXM’s strategic investment.”

 


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