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See Tickets acquires Switzerland’s Starticket

Following an aborted merger with CTS Eventim, Switzerland's largest independent ticketing platform has joined forces with Vivendi's See

By Jon Chapple on 09 Jan 2020

Starticket's new owner, See, tickets Belgium's Tomorrowland festival

image © EloyBr/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

See Tickets has acquired Starticket, a major player in Switzerland, bolstering the UK-based ticket seller’s presence on the continent and expanding its footprint to a ninth European market.

Zurich-based Starticket – formerly owned by TX Group, Switzerland’s largest media company – sells more than five million tickets annually, and is the country’s second-biggest concert ticketing platform, behind CTS Eventim’s Ticketcorner, according to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2019. The acquisition by See comes nearly three years after a merger between Starticket and Ticketcorner was blocked by Swiss competition regulators.

As a result of the merger, Vivendi-owned See sells nearly 30m tickets a year for 10,000 clients, including Glastonbury Festival, the Château de Versailles, L’Olympia in Paris, Garorock and Tomorrowland (pictured). Its presence in the US means it is active in ten markets worldwide.

Samuel Hügli, head of technology and ventures at TX Group (formerly Tamedia) says: “With this acquisition by See Tickets, Starticket will become part of a leading international ticketing service provider that uses cutting-edge technology and has a huge network with numerous partnerships.

“We have long admired Starticket as a stand-out independent ticketing company in Switzerland”

“This will strengthen Starticket in international competition and allow See Tickets to benefit from Starticket’s many years of experience in the Swiss market.”

“I am delighted to welcome Starticket and its experienced management team into our group,” adds See Tickets’ global CEO, Rob Wilmshurst. “We have long admired Starticket as a stand-out independent ticketing company in Switzerland, and I know that together we will be able to further develop the quality and range of services to our clients and customers in the country.”

According to PwC, Switzerland is Europe’s eighth-biggest live music market, worth US$370 million in ticket sales in 2019, and the 13th-biggest globally. Read IQ’s latest Switzerland market report here:

Switzerland market report: positive signs

 


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