In a quick bit of industry financial news, two major stories that are of significant interest to the DJ sphere have come across the DJTT editorial desk in the last few days.
First up, SFX Entertainment just finished filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a $175 million public IPO offering. The company is a major US event promotions company which recently bought Beatport outright for $50 million. They’re also responsible for bringing the extremely popular Belgian Tomorrowland festival to the US, which is set to take place right outside of Atlanta in September.
Just how big is SFX in terms of event production? The SEC filing includes the below chart detailing the companies assets- totaling about 809 events and 52 festivals in 2012, for a total attendance of around 2.8 million.
In more DJ technology-focused news, D&M Holdings (if you’re not aware, that’s Denon + Marantz) sold off Allen & Heath last week to Electra Partners for a cool £43 million. Electra Partners is a private equity group that has investments in tons of industries – from home builders, to railroads, to pharmaceutical companies – but unlike D&M Holdings, it doesn’t have another DJ equipment manufacturer under its umbrella.
From the official press release, Allen & Heath’s Managing Director Glenn Rogers writes:
“We have an excellent catalogue of existing products and a number of exciting prospects in development. We see opportunity for expansion into new areas and look forward to building Allen & Heath’s long-term future alongside Electra Partners.”
While Allen & Heath and Denon never openly had product-by-product competitors, there’s no doubt that separating the companies will allow each a bit more freedom in the products they aim to produce. The real question is – what gear will this mean each company will now focus on? Let us know your speculation in the comments below.
