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See Tickets expands European presence with Paylogic buy

Vivendi has grown its European ticketing network with the acquisition of Paylogic from LiveStyle, adding 5m+ sales and taking the fight to the likes of Eventim and TM

By Jon Chapple on 16 Apr 2018

Electric Zoo 2017, LiveStyle, Paylogic

image © aLIVE Coverage for ElectricZooFestival.com

French media giant Vivendi, the parent company of See Tickets, has acquired Netherlands-based Paylogic, putting in motion ambitious plans for what is calls a “global ticketing network spanning Europe and US”.

Paylogic – previously owned by LiveStyle/SFX Entertainment, and acquired by Vivendi/See for an undisclosed sum – is, along with Ticketmaster, CTS Eventim and Ticketpoint, one of four main players in the Dutch ticketing market, according to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2017. According to Vivendi, the company sells more than five million tickets annually in more than ten countries.

The acquisition of Paylogic means Vivendi now has ticketing operations in the UK and US (See Tickets), France (Digitick), the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Germany, employing more than 500 people and projected to sell 20m+ tickets a year for music, cultural and sporting events.

Paylogic’s clients include leading European EDM festival brands and promoters such as Tomorrowland, ID&T, Amsterdam Dance Event and Awakenings.

See Tickets US has simultaneously entered into an agreement with LiveStyle and its subsidiaries to ticket its US festivals and events, which include Electric Zoo (pictured), Miami’s Life in Color, Sunset Music Festival in Tampa and Spring Awakening in Chicago.

“We are delighted to acquire Paylogic,” comments See Tickets CEO Rob Wilmshurst. “It is a clear statement of our intention to grow our activities in Europe and the US.

“We are delighted to acquire Paylogic. It is a clear statement of our intention to grow our activities in Europe and the US”

“We warmly welcome the Paylogic team to the wider Vivendi family and look forward to sharing an agenda of growth, service quality and technological progression.”

Vivendi bought See Tickets (UK) in 2011, and in 2014 opened the company’s first US office, in Los Angeles. The company acquired EDM ticketing platform Flavorus, also from SFX, in June 2016, later integrating it into See Tickets US.

See was formerly owned by Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group, passing to Joop van den Ende’s Stage Entertainment in 2008, which merged it into Stage Ticketing International. Other companies formerly part of Stage’s See Tickets group were not part of the Vivendi deal, with ownership of Sherpa in Belgium passing to Ticketmaster, and Ticketonline (now oeticket) in Austria and Entradas in Spain to CTS Eventim.

In addition to ticketing, Vivendi has interests in TV and film (Canal+ Group), recorded music (Universal Music Group), video games (Ubisoft and Gameloft), online video (Dailymotion) and venue management (L’Olympia in Paris and several in west Africa).

Its 2017 turnover was €10.8 billion.

 


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