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SoundCloud To Stay Open Thanks to Hail Mary $170M Investment

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On a week where the future of SoundCloud once again seemed uncertain, a new injection of cash seems to be the only thing keeping the beleaguered streaming giant alive.

The Hail Mary deal, reported by Vanity’s Senior Silicon Valley Correspondent, aims to safeguard the company’s financial survival and give it a fighting chance to pay down its debt. The deal sees the music platform receive nearly $170 million from the Raine Group and Singapore’s Temasek but comes with some serious sacrifices for existing investors.

Axios, who were the first to report on the new and needed cash infusion yesterday morning, also reported that some existing institutional investors will also participate in the new funding, which is set to close today.

The deal sees the new investors secure 50% of the company, with common shareholders including early employees coming out as the losers of the entire situation here. A source has reported to Variety that the latter will only receive 17% of any exit proceeds that exceed the new investment, plus the $70 million the company raised from Twitter in 2016. What does this mean exactly? Simply put, unless SoundCloud sells for more than $240 million at some point in the future some investors will be walking out with nothing.

Although the deal is not finalized yet, with shareholders needing to approve all its details still, it is expected to be a practical “done deal” with confirmation to arrive at some point today.

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Judge Approves SFX’s Plan To Cut Debt By $400 Million

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SFX Logo

SFX received welcome news this past week when a judge approved the company’s reorganization plan, which includes their debt getting cut by $400 million.

The Wall Street Journal has reported on the news, giving SFX the opportunity of exiting from 9 month of bankruptcy. The electronic music events company filed for bankruptcy in February of this year, a move that many interpreted as the sign that major shifts were happening in the worldwide EDM industry. Following the bankruptcy filing, the company’s contested Founder Robert Sillerman stepped down from his CEO position while remaining chairman of SFX’s board.

The company then went on to announce the sale of Beatport before taking the music service company off the market, restructuring its services portfolio and bringing it back to profitability. They also made moves to sell other assets off as part of their restructuring plan, including the sale of Flavorus to Vivendi for $4 million.

SFX Will No Longer Be Selling Beatport

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Beatport Long

Six months ago, SFX Entertainment declared bankruptcy raising a vast cloud of doubt over the future of various companies it had acquired during the EDM boom of 2010-2015.

One of the companies whose future was uncertain was Beatport, the giant electronic music-oriented online store founded in Denver, Colorado. While it was initially reported that the company was going to be put up for auction in May, SFX has now announced that it will no longer be sold.

Beatport will continue to operate as a marketplace after earlier canceling its streaming services. This last change was among several other actions taken by SFX in the last few months that have proven to have dramatically improved the company’s profitability.

Below is the full statement from SFX Entertainment:

“Our renewed focus on the Beatport Store, following our announcement of platform changes in May, 2016, has been well-received and successful. The changes we implemented have laid a strong foundation for Beatport that have dramatically improved its profitability.

“As a result of these improving trends, SFX has determined that retaining ownership of Beatport is in the best interest of the Company and has withdrawn its motion to sell Beatport through the Chapter 11 process. We look forward to emerging from Chapter 11 in the next few months, as strong and vibrant business, positioned to pursue both organic and strategic growth options. The dedicated Beatport management team is committed to continuing to serve our core DJ customer base and enhancing the quality of our customer experience.”

SFX’s Flavorus Sold to Vivendi for $4 Million

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Flavorus Logo

As we previously reported, SFX has been auctioning off their assets as part of their Chapter 11 Bankruptcy restructuring. Major event companies the likes of React Presents, Made Event, Alda Events and more were owed millions as a result of years’ worth of steady financial decline.

The latest company on SFX’s portfolio to have been sold is Flavorus, the ticketing service that has in the past been used by major festivals such as Electric Daisy Carnival and Movement Electronic Music Festival. On June 2nd and 3rd, Flavorus was auctioned off to Vivendi Ticketing US LLC, a branch of the UK’s Vivendi S.A. for the high-bidding price of $4 million offer – a $13.1 million loss on the price the company was originally acquired for in 2014.

The latest in SFX’s development comes following Beatport’s announcement that it is ending its news and streaming services in order to concentrate on its original intended purpose of serving as a music store for the electronic music community.

React Presents, Made Event and More Owed Millions by SFX

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React Presents' Spring Awakening Music Festival

React Presents’ Spring Awakening Music Festival

Only last week we reported that SFX Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a final attempt of restructuring and salvaging whatever possible from their dire financial situation by erasing their $300 million of outstanding debt.

We have now learned through an IQ Mag report that 11 of SFX’s largest “non-insider” creditors – i.e. those that aren’t directly associated with SFX founder and owner Rober FX Sillerman – are the direct owners of the many companies that SFX added to their portfolio since 2012. According to the report, SFX’s assets are listed at $661.614m with debts of $490.236m. Sillerman and entities controlled by him own 37.8 per cent of the company’s common stock at the time of writing.

From the report, it can be learned that SFX’s largest American creditors are Made Event, founders of Electric Zoo in New York, Electric Zoo Mexico City and Electric Zoo Beach Tokyo, who are still waiting payment of around $10 million. React Presents in Chicago, responsible for a vast percentage of EDM-related events in the entire Midwest including Spring Awakening Music Festival, Summer Set Music & Camping, the Mid and Concord Hall, is owed $5.8 million.

Elsewhere, reports highlight that the Netherland’s Alda Events (at the top of the creditor’s list) is out $23.6 million while Australia’s Totem OneLove Group, promoters for Stereosonic festival, are owed $10.7m.

Three co-founders of Hoeksema Holdings (Paylogic) are also owed three separate amounts each ranging from half a million to $2.5m. Several trade creditors that are still owed money include private air-charter firm VistaJet ($1m), Epic Tents ($442,650), PRS for Music ($327,680), NYC-based app-builder Postlight ($315,000), Front Gate Ticketing ($301,400) and an event medical services firm CrowdRX ($269,600).

What this list essentially is, are the various entities and individuals still awaiting deferred payments by SFX. Due to the nature of the Restructuring Support Agreement, it is safe to assume that creditors will continue to have a strong vested interest and involvement in ensuring SFX’s restructuring is successful.

Source: IQ Mag

TomorrowWorld’s Future Uncertain According to Festival Spokesman

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aTomorrowWorld

Yesterday the dance music world learned that SFX Entertainment officially filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest step in the company’s attempts to take the company back private and out of its seemingly never-ending financial woes.

SFX Entertainment holds a large portfolio of dance music entities and festivals across the United States including Beatport and the American version of Belgium’s famed Tomorrowland. While the former released a statement that things were business as usual, news coming out of TomorrowWorld’s camp were not as positive.

Local outlet Georgia Unfiltered reached out to Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen about the future of the festivals in Belgium, Brazil, and the USA. Key parts of her statement distance the Brazilian and Belgian editions of the festival series from the event that takes place each fall in Atlanta, Georgia:

“Since 2013 we have collaborated with SFX for the foreign editions of Tomorrowland held in the USA and Brazil. However, we have noticed that our vision and goals, including a long-term strategy, are different from those of the publicly listed company.”

Wilmsen went on to assure that while the future of TomorrowWorld is uncertain, Tomorrowland and Tomorrowland Brasil will remain unaffected: “The Chapter 11 procedure will have no consequences for Tomorrowland in Boom,” she says. “The festival in Belgium is created, organized and managed for 100 % by the Belgian team. Tomorrowland Brazil will also take place as planned two months from now in Itu (Sao Paulo). Tomorrowland Brazil is being organized in close consultation with the Belgian team by a motivated Brazilian team that is able to work independently of SFX in North America for all aspects of the event.”

Read the full statement on Georgia Unfiltered.