Ticketing and event technology platform Eventbrite has agreed a $200 million (£157m) deal to acquire Ticketfly from Pandora.
The acquisition brings together Eventbrite's expertise in music and event technology with Ticketfly's marketing skills and success in music. Eventbrite and Pandora also plan to enter into a future distribution agreement.
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and we see immense alignment and opportunity with this union, especially as we continue to expand Eventbrite's global footprint in music," said Eventbrite founder and CEO Julia Hartz (pictured). "Together with Ticketfly, we will focus our collective energy on further developing our unparalleled solution and superior services for indie music venues and promoters around the world."
Ticketfly currently works with over 1,800 of the top music promoters and venues across North America, supporting 100,000 events per year which generate $600 million in gross ticket sales.
"We are happy to be joining forces with our friends at Eventbrite," said Ticketfly's co-founder and CEO Andrew Dreskin, who will lead Eventbrite's music efforts. "Ticketfly and Eventbrite are the two most progressive live events technology companies out there, and together we will create a transformational platform that will be game-changing for independent venues and promoters.
"We plan to build on the great work that Ticketfly and Pandora have done and offer the benefits of that partnership to Eventbrite's customers, delivering even more live event notifications to Pandora listeners."
Pandora founder and CEO Tim Westergren added: "The combination of Ticketfly and Pandora proved our thesis that listeners want easy access to live events, and that we have the ability to promote and sell tickets at scale in a highly targeted way.
"We look forward to expanding the opportunity to bring fans and artists together through our continued partnership with Eventbrite and Ticketfly."
The acquisition announcement follows Eventbrite's purchase of European ticketing company Ticketscript earlier this year, and builds upon the traction the company has experienced in music since the launch of Eventbrite Venue, the first fully integrated booking, operations and ticketing solution for live music venues.
