CTS Eventim Unveils Proposed Deal for Vivendi’s See Tickets, Festivals Business Amid Focus ‘On Shaping the Future of Live Entertainment’

CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg. Photo Credit: CTS Eventim

In December, reports suggested that French conglomerate Vivendi had received multiple bids for its See Tickets subsidiary. Now, the former Universal Music owner has officially unveiled a deal to sell the division to German live-events business CTS Eventim. Vivendi and CTS Eventim formally announced the planned transaction today, after September of 2023 coverage pointed to the former entity’s divestment ambitions. In keeping with these reports, the just-detailed deal excludes Vivendi venues including L’Olympia in Paris, besides See Tickets France and Brive Festival.

But the deal does encompass the remainder of See Tickets and Vivendi’s festivals (among them the U.K.’s Junction 2 and Love Supreme and France’s Garorock), which are said to have generated about $147.44 million (€137 million) in 2023. Of that sum, approximately $113.02 million (€105 million) derived from the sale of roughly 44 million tickets, per Vivendi.

Moreover, while the companies opted against disclosing the precise See Tickets price tag, the aforementioned December reports indicated that Vivendi was seeking a $322.86 million (€300 million) payday for the holding.

Shifting to the timetable and personnel specifics associated with today’s “put option agreement on the sale of Vivendi’s festival and international ticketing activities,” the transaction is expected to wrap “in the coming months” following the “consultation of the employee representative bodies concerned.” Building on the point, the deal will per the companies “ensure maximum continuity for staff, partners, [and] the festivals themselves,” with See Tickets and the involved happenings retaining “their existing identities and management.”

Addressing the tie-up in a statement, CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg spelled out his bigger-picture objective of “shaping the future of live entertainment.”

“With See Tickets and its festival operations,” the CTS Eventim head communicated in part, “Vivendi has established two notable players in the ticketing and live entertainment sector. … The acquisition supports our internationalization strategy and will also benefit artists and their managers, as we will be able to offer even more seamless services on a global scale.

“We look forward to collaborating with our new colleagues on shaping the future of live entertainment,” he finished.

Regarding other components of CTS Eventim’s “internationalization strategy,” the Bremen-based business is expected to open a 16,000-capacity Milan arena (touted as “more than a mere physical structure” and a symbol of “Milan’s spirit and unmatched vibrancy”) next year, while it and Sony Music jointly acquired ticketing businesses in Peru and Chile in November of 2023.

The following month, CTS Eventim partnered with promoter Walter McDonald to launch The Touring Co. in the United States, before posting record 2023 earnings in February of 2024.