Eventbrite finalises $200m Ticketfly acquisition

Eventbrite has completed its acquisition of Ticketfly from Pandora, establishing a combined ticketing/event technology platform it says will process more than 200 million tickets to 3m+ events globally and generate US$4bn in gross ticket sales this year alone.

The US$200m acquisition of US-based Ticketfly, announced in June, is Eventbrite’s third this year and seventh in total, and follows the buy-out of European market leader Ticketscript in January.

Julia Hartz, the company’s co-founder and CEO, says the acquisition of Ticketfly – which works with almost 2,000 promoters and venues in North America, including the Bowery Ballroom in New York, the Troubadour in Los Angeles and Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago – enables Eventbrite to offer a “market-defining solution for independent venues, promoters and festivals”.

“The union of Eventbrite and Ticketfly changes the game for the music industry,” she comments. “Our respective customers will benefit immensely from access to the best of what each company brings to the table.

“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 unparallelled service to our customers.”

“This deal brings together the two most progressive live event technology companies”

As previously reported, Ticketfly founder Andrew Dreskin joins Eventbrite as head of music, where will continue to work with former owner Pandora to deliver in-app concert recommendations, a feature rolled out in July last year. Eventbrite, meanwhile, has existing partnerships with Facebook, Spotify and concert-recommendation service Bandsintown.

“We are happy to be teaming up with our friends at Eventbrite,” says Dreskin. “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, headquartered in San Francisco but with local operations globally, bills itself as the largest independent ticketing company in the world by number of organisers and events.

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