US technology investor giant Silver Lake to buy Sydney-based TEG

US technology investor giant Silver Lake has signed a definitive agreement to buy high profile Sydney-based live entertainment, ticketing and data company TEG from Affinity Equity Partners.

The transaction, expected to close before the end of the year, is subject to customary closing conditions including approval by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

Reports emerged in late September that the companies were in talks. TEG was put on the market 12 months ago.

The two companies have not revealed financial details. The Australian Financial Review estimated TEG’s value at A$1 billion.

Affinity bought it in 2015 for $640 million from Nine Entertainment, which set it up under the name Nine Live.

TEG’s senior management team, led by CEO Geoff Jones, will continue to lead the company and remain meaningful equity partners in the new ownership structure.

Jones said this morning, “The team at Affinity have been great partners for us over the last four years and have helped us to continue to scale our business.

“We are confident that Silver Lake is the right partner for the next stage of the company’s growth.

“Silver Lake brings us deep technology expertise as well as important global entertainment content and live events
expertise and relationships which will help us to accelerate the growth of our platform globally.”

Stephen Evans, Silver Lake’s managing director opened up about his company’s planned acquisition.

“High quality live sports and entertainment content is more sought after now than ever and represents a massive global addressable market for the company,” he explained.

“We believe TEG’s innovative and integrated ticketing, content, digital marketing and analytics platform is well positioned to continue to benefit from increasing consumer demand worldwide.

“We’ve been impressed by TEG’s long-term track record
of growth under Geoff Jones, most recently in partnership with the Affinity team, both organically and through strategic acquisitions.

“We’re excited to partner with Geoff and the entire TEG team and invest further to leverage TEG’s platform and accelerate the company’s growth, both in Asia Pacific and globally.”

TEG operates through the Asia Pacific, with assets including Ticketek Australia and New Zealand, TEG Live, TEG Dainty, Softix, Eventopia and Sydney’s Qudos Arena.

It provides ticketing for over 135 venue and promoter clients and delivers 30 million tickets annually for over 30,000 events spanning live sports, concerts, theatre, festivals, and exhibitions across more than 13 countries.

Its tours have included Hugh Jackman, Guns N’ Roses, Eminem, Katy Perry, Cirque du Soleil, Jerry Seinfeld, the Brazil national football team, and the Australian debut of Intel Extreme Masters esports.

Silver Lake, valued at US$43 billion, is headquartered in Silicon Valley and New York. .

Its entertainment investments include Alibaba Group, Dell Technologies, WME’s parent company Endeavor, the Madison Square Garden Company and UFC.

Its investments collectively generate more than $210 billion of revenue annually and it employs 370,000 people globally.