Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. and operating advisor Sam Soni announced their acquisition of ticket resale software system Ticket Evolution this week. The deal brings Mr. Soni back into the leadership of a ticketing firm, after he founded and served as CEO of PrimeSport, which was subsequently sold to On Location Experiences after consolidating much of the independently-held ticket resale inventory for the NFL’s Super Bowl.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ticket Evolution had merged with DTI Management in the spring of 2021, which also brought Soni aboard as a member of the combined companies Board of Directors. The transaction was completed through Victory Live, Inc, which is described as an event management and ticketing technology platform backed by Clearlake.

“We are excited to add Ticket Evolution to our platform and believe that this acquisition represents an opportunity to accelerate value creation and drive optionality for rightsholders, resellers, and affiliates,” said Mr. Soni. “Ticket Evolution continues to leverage its technology to drive efficiencies in the ticketing market and is enabling the shift to fully digital and mobile ticketing experiences.”

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“Sam’s relationships with rightsholders and resellers combined with Clearlake’s access to capital and sector expertise provide levers to drive accelerated growth at Ticket Evolution,” said Curtis Cheng, CEO of Ticket Evolution. “We believe in the Company and our strategy, and we are excited to bring onboard partners who back that strategy. We are looking forward to investing in product development at the combined platform given the complementary nature of our technology and industry relationships.”

The move consolidates a large suite of what had previously been independently operating entities under the control of VictoryLive. DTI Management owned 1Ticket prior to its merger with TEVO, and Ticket Vision was acquired by that company during their merger 17 months ago. The company appears to be positioning itself as an independent but robust suite of capabilities to partners in both the resale space and with rights-holders themselves looking to take advantage of the secondary ticketing market.

“Our acquisition of Ticket Evolution underscores our fundamental growth strategy for VictoryLive, which looks to expand relationships with and support the growth of event managers by investing in technology and data,” said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and James Pade, Partner and Managing Director, of Clearlake. “We are thrilled to leverage our O.P.S.® approach in partnership with Sam, Curtis, and the management team.”

Ticket Evolution was initially founded with the backing of a wide array of ticket brokers, whose initial investments were taken in $10,000 increments. There has been some griping in the wake of the sale announcement, which had first been rumored more than a week ago as those who had made investments were informed of the upcoming transaction – and that they would be getting less than their initial investment back when the transaction closed.

The full release announcing the Ticket Evolution deal is available at this link: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clearlake-capital-and-sam-soni-acquire-ticket-evolution-through-victorylive-platform-301646890.html