After months of speculation, the Paris-headquartered Vivendi announced the proposed sale of its festival and international ticketing activities — including See Tickets — to CTS Eventim.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that both CTS Eventim and AEG were in the running to purchase See Tickets, the No. 2 ticketing provider in the U.K. Now, Eventim will not only own See Tickets, which operates in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.S., but it will also acquire parts of Vivendi Village. This includes Junction 2 in London and Garorock in France, although L’Olympia in Paris, See Tickets France, and Brive Festival are not a part of the agreement.
Hala Bavière, chief executive of Vivendi Village and member of the Executive Committee of Vivendi, expressed in a statement they are “proud of what has been accomplished over more than a decade and extremely grateful for the strong dedication of all the teams involved” at Vivendi.
“We at Vivendi are convinced that CTS Eventim will be the right company to bring our ticketing and festival activities to new heights, supporting See Tickets to remain a state-of-the-art company in services and technology, while fostering the growth of the festivals and preserving their unique identities and audience,” Bavière said.
See Tickets was purchased by Vivendi for just under $135 million back in 2011, a solid move for the entertainment conglomerate, which also owns the major-label record company Universal Music Group. Vivendi’s ticketing and festival activities generated roughly €137m (£117m/$147m) in 2023, with ticketing making up €105m of the figure. Last year, See Tickets sold roughly 44 million tickets.
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS Eventim, said Vivendi “established two notable players in the ticketing and live entertainment sector” with See Tickets and its festival operations.
“The acquisition supports our internationalisation strategy and will also benefit artists and their managers, as we will be able to offer even more seamless services on a global scale,” Schulenberg said. “We look forward to collaborating with our new colleagues on shaping the future of live entertainment.”
The deal is expected to be complete in the coming months. Both See Tickets and the festival business will retain their existing identities and management.
