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Munich/Vienna, 3 December 2019. CTS EVENTIM, one of the world’s leading providers of ticketing and live entertainment, has acquired 71 percent of shares in the Austrian concert promoter Barracuda Music. The company is thus expanding its European event portfolio to include some of Austria’s most popular concerts and festivals. Barracuda Music will become part of the EVENTIM LIVE promoter network. The transaction has been approved by the relevant antitrust authorities.
CTS EVENTIM CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg commented: “We want to offer artists not only powerful ticketing services, but also international touring opportunities. Strengthening our market position in Austria is therefore an obvious step. Barracuda is one of Europe’s most creative concert promoters and ideally complements the portfolio of our EVENTIM LIVE promoter network. I am delighted that Ewald Tatar and his management team will continue to drive forward the development of Barracuda in their proven manner.”
Barracuda Music has grown continuously since it was founded in 2004. The group bundles the activities of several independent concert promoters, including the organizers of the “Electric Love,” “Frequency,” and “Nova Rock” festivals. Artists whose performances in Austria are organized by Barracuda Music include Bob Dylan, David Gilmour, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran, and Robbie Williams. Since 2012, Barracuda has also been the exclusive organizer of concerts at historic Clam Castle, which has since become established as one of Austria’s most popular and prestigious venues.
Ewald Tatar, who will continue to manage Barracuda’s operations from Vienna, said: “I look forward to this opportunity to continue Barracuda’s success story in the future with the support of a global player like CTS EVENTIM. In particular, collaborating with the EVENTIM LIVE promoters will help us to offer artists, venues and fans the best possible solutions. I am confident that we, and hence Austria’s concert scene as a whole, will benefit greatly from this partnership.”
In March of this year, CTS EVENTIM had bundled its promoter activities in the new EVENTIM LIVE unit. The network now comprises 29 promoters who organise more than 30 festivals and some 5,000 live events each year, which attract ten million visitors in twelve countries. With the formation of EVENTIM LIVE, the company responded to the needs of a growing number of artists who increasingly expect their tour operators to offer cross-border touring opportunities, and tailor-made solutions from a single source. 2
Frithjof Pils, Managing Director of EVENTIM LIVE, added: “The Barracuda Group is the first point of contact in Austria for countless outstanding local and international artists. It also has an exceptional portfolio of festivals that bring together hundreds of thousands of fans from home and abroad year after year. We very much look forward to being able to benefit from Ewald Tatar and his team’s experience and network at EVENTIM LIVE from now on.”
About CTS EVENTIM
CTS EVENTIM is one of the leading international providers of Ticketing and Live Entertainment. In 2018, approx. 250 million tickets were marketed using the company’s systems – through stationary box offices, online or mobile. Its online portals operate under brands such as eventim.de, oeticket.com, ticketcorner.ch, ticketone.it, and entradas.com. The EVENTIM Group also includes many concert, tour and festival promoter companies for events like ‘Rock am Ring’, ‘Rock im Park’, ‘Hurricane’, ‘Southside’, and ‘Lucca Summer’. In addition, some of Europe’s most renowned venues are operated by CTS EVENTIM, for example the LANXESS arena in Cologne, the Waldbühne in Berlin and the EVENTIM Apollo in London. CTS EVENTIM AG & Co. KGaA (ISIN DE 0005470306) has been listed on the stock exchange since 2000 and is currently a member of the MDAX segment. In 2018, its 3,141-strong workforce generated more than 1.2 billion Euros in revenue in 21 countries.
About Barracuda Music
The roots of today’s Barracuda group go back to 2004, when the makers of the “Aerodrome” and the “Meadow Festival” – Ewald Tatar, Thomas Zsifkovits and Franz Erhardt – joined forces with the founder of the “Frequency” festival, Harry Jenner, to organise the first “Nova Rock” festival in the following year. Soon afterwards, Richard Hörmann joined the group. Over the years, the team expanded its portfolio of festivals: Today, besides “Nova Rock”, the “Electric Love”, “Frequency,” and “Lovely Days” festivals are all organised under the umbrella of the Barracuda group. Meanwhile, the concert sector became a priority early on, with a focus on rock and pop: artists whose tours in Austria are organised by Barracuda include Bob Dylan, David Gilmour, Elton John, Mumford & Sons, the Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran, Sportfreunde Stiller, Twenty One Pilots, and Robbie Williams. In the past fiscal year, more than a million tickets were sold for events promoted by Barracuda Music.
