PARIS (Reuters) – I2PO, the investment vehicle created last year by François-Henri Pinault and Matthieu Pigasse, announced on Monday that it had reached a definitive agreement with Deezer for the acquisition of the French online music streaming group.
The agreement was concluded on the basis of an enterprise value of approximately 1.075 billion euros, the two companies specify in a press release.
The combination aims to grow Deezer’s revenue to €1 billion by 2025 while enabling it to achieve operating profitability and positive cash flow, they add.
Deezer, which has 9.6 million subscribers and a catalog of more than 90 million titles, generated 400 million euros in turnover in 2021, an amount up 5.5%, and is targeting 455 million euros in revenue this year, representing growth of 14%.
By way of comparison, Spotify, the leading independent player in the global music streaming market, had 406 million subscribers at the end of 2021.
I2PO, a “special purpose acquisition company” or SPAC dedicated to the entertainment and leisure sector, has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since last July after raising 3,275 million euros.
The new entity resulting from the merger, which will retain the Deezer name, will have 135 million euros, part of which will be raised from investors that include existing Deezer shareholders (including Access Industries, UMG, Warner Music, Orange, Kingdom Holdings, Eurazeo and Xavier Niel) as well as Groupe Artémis, Bpifrance and Media Participations.
“Deezer has what it takes to continue capturing a significant share of the booming music streaming market,” I2PO CEO Iris Knobloch said in a statement.
(Written by Marc Angrand)
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