On Monday, the French media conglomerate announced it had acquired online ticketing service Paylogic for an undisclosed sum. Together, the two expect to sell more than 20 million tickets a year for music, sporting and cultural events, to over 5,000 clients in over 30 countries.
Founded in 2005 in Groningen, Paylogic is the fastest growing ticketing company in Europe, with offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Paylogic has developed revolutionary digital ticketing environments for 1000’s of clients including the major live entertainment brands, Tomorrowland, ID&T, ADE, and Awakenings. Those companies will now join an impressive portfolio including the Eiffel Tower, the Vieilles Charrues festival, L’Olympique de Marseille, the Glastonbury festival in the UK and the Queen Mary liner in the US.
From the KEI-week to the rest of the world
Paylogic started out as Accepté, a company founded by Theo Hoeksema, Rutger van Zuidam, Bert Jan Wesselink, and Han Jongstra in 2005, when they met during the KEI-week, the introduction week for students in Groningen. In 2006, the company launched Paylogic and things took off fast. Van den Ende & Deitmers, a large Dutch cross media Dutch investment fund, bought 41% of the company a year later.
In 2013, Paylogic was bought by US billionaire Robert Sillerman’s company SFX Entertainment for a whopping $22 million. Paylogic now has offices in Groningen, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Berlin and works together with thousands of clients in over thirty countries on all continents
Before buying Paylogic, Vivenda recently announced it was selling its shares in game publisher Ubisoft for €2 billion.