Fact #178236
When:
Short story:
Swedish-based promotions company EMA Telstar is sold to the New York City company SFX for $27.9m, thus marking the beginning its expansion into Europe which, in time, will evolve into the globally dominant LiveNation organisation.
Full article:
Dennis Arfa (Artists Group International) : In 1999 my company was then owned by SFX, whose chairman was a guy named Bob Sillerman. What LiveNation is today is what SFX was, it just evolved into LiveNation. At that time I was the only agent that SFX owned, and the inner circle of the SFX team didn’t have expertise around the world, but they wanted to expand into Europe and beyond. The first target was Europe, and they came to me and said, 'Dennis, show us the way.' Well, I said to them. 'If you get Thomas Johansson and Leon Ramakers, though they are not the biggest countries in Europe, they are the most dominant promoters in their territories, they have credibility, and they will all come'.
So I called Thomas up, invited him over to meet with Bob Sillerman in New York City. We had breakfast and then we walked together over to Bob’s office in the SFX headquarters, and thirty minutes into the meeting Bob told Thomas he wanted to buy EMA Telstar, and the rest is history.
Thomas Johansson : The deal with Sillerman was basically set up with Dennis Arfa who is a dear friend of mine. He called me up and asked, "Thomas, d’you wanna sell your fuckin’ company?" Then he told me the deal, and said the only other person he needed to speak with was Leon Ramakers at Mojo. So Leon and me with Barry Clayman and Phil Bowdery went over to New York, and Dennis had set up meetings with Sillerman for us, I think it was 20 years ago in March, so Sillerman told us the deal and Leon and I looked at each other and nodded and said, ’Yeah’.
Dennis Arfa : That was the beginning of SFX/LiveNation expanding into Europe and Thomas was one of the first two to join. That was a pivotal move for both parties and, obviously, Thomas has maintained, sustained, and has remained one of the leaders of the European touring market throughout his whole career.
Thomas Johansson : When I sold EMA Telstar to Sillerman I could see where the wind was blowing. I could see that eventually there would be only about four major companies in the world that did the big tours. It was going that direction very fast. We have about 25m people on what I consider my turf, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The German-speaking territories are about 110m, the UK is heading up towards 65m people, France is about 50m and so on. So to be a part of the circuit for touring attractions, you needed to be part of something larger. That was my main rationale for selling, and also it meant I could look after all the fantastic people I have working with me here, lots of whom have been with me for many decades.
I’m very happy that I decided to do it, because it was the only way to move forward. When LiveNation was formed it was basically about 15 countries. Today we are in 43 countries. Michael Rapino, at the helm of LiveNation has done an unparalleled job. He’s a very clever man, a good person and a big ice hockey fan. I’m very happy to be part of that team.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, March 2019)
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So I called Thomas up, invited him over to meet with Bob Sillerman in New York City. We had breakfast and then we walked together over to Bob’s office in the SFX headquarters, and thirty minutes into the meeting Bob told Thomas he wanted to buy EMA Telstar, and the rest is history.
Thomas Johansson : The deal with Sillerman was basically set up with Dennis Arfa who is a dear friend of mine. He called me up and asked, "Thomas, d’you wanna sell your fuckin’ company?" Then he told me the deal, and said the only other person he needed to speak with was Leon Ramakers at Mojo. So Leon and me with Barry Clayman and Phil Bowdery went over to New York, and Dennis had set up meetings with Sillerman for us, I think it was 20 years ago in March, so Sillerman told us the deal and Leon and I looked at each other and nodded and said, ’Yeah’.
Dennis Arfa : That was the beginning of SFX/LiveNation expanding into Europe and Thomas was one of the first two to join. That was a pivotal move for both parties and, obviously, Thomas has maintained, sustained, and has remained one of the leaders of the European touring market throughout his whole career.
Thomas Johansson : When I sold EMA Telstar to Sillerman I could see where the wind was blowing. I could see that eventually there would be only about four major companies in the world that did the big tours. It was going that direction very fast. We have about 25m people on what I consider my turf, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The German-speaking territories are about 110m, the UK is heading up towards 65m people, France is about 50m and so on. So to be a part of the circuit for touring attractions, you needed to be part of something larger. That was my main rationale for selling, and also it meant I could look after all the fantastic people I have working with me here, lots of whom have been with me for many decades.
I’m very happy that I decided to do it, because it was the only way to move forward. When LiveNation was formed it was basically about 15 countries. Today we are in 43 countries. Michael Rapino, at the helm of LiveNation has done an unparalleled job. He’s a very clever man, a good person and a big ice hockey fan. I’m very happy to be part of that team.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, March 2019)