CTS Eventim Completes $327M Acquisition of Vivendi’s Festival and Ticketing Businesses

CTS Eventim completed the acquisition of Vivendi’s festival business and ticketing company, See Tickets, for 300 million euros ($327 million), Vivendi announced Thursday (June 6). The German concert promoter and ticketing company had entered into a put option to acquire the businesses from Vivendi on April 2. 

The acquisition includes such festivals as the Junction 2 in the United Kingdom and Garorock in France. Vivendi’s performance hall business, See Tickets France and Brive Festival in France, were not included in the deal. 

The two acquired businesses had 137 million euros ($148 million) of revenue in 2023. See Tickets, which counts Glastonbury Festival and Tomorrowland as clients, had revenue of 105 million euros ($114 million) and earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) of 26 million euros ($28 million). The festival business had revenue of 32 million euros ($35 million). 

The acquisition will provide a big boost to CTS Eventim’s existing ticketing sales. In 2023, Vivendi’s ticketing business sold 44 million tickets in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United States and its largest market, the United Kingdom. That was roughly half of CTS Eventim’s 2023 internet ticket volume of 82.9 million tickets, according to the company’s 2023 annual report.  

“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,” said CTS Eventim chief executive Klaus-Peter Schulenberg in a statement announcing the acquisition in April.

CTS Eventim’s ticketing business had revenue of 717.3 million euros ($776 million) in 2023, up 32% from the prior year, with EBITDA of 382.4 million euros ($414 million), up 47%. Its concert promotion business had revenue of 1.67 billion euros ($1.8 billion) and EBITDA of 111.6 million euros ($121 million).