Comcast-Spectacor Acquires Paciolan from Live Nation

Comcast-Spectacor, the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm, today acquired Paciolan, a leading provider of venue ticketing software solutions, from a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment. In keeping with company policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. As a result of the acquisition, Comcast-Spectacor will now own Paciolan’s ticketing platform and other technology, together with the company’s various accounts.

By virtue of this latest acquisition, Comcast-Spectacor is poised to further extend its reach as a worldwide leader in sports and entertainment by managing public assembly facilities (through Global Spectrum), providing catering and providing food and beverage sales (through Ovations Food Services), selling naming rights and sponsorships (through Front Row Marketing Services), and now, by owning a ticketing platform able to sell millions of tickets to events worldwide.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast-Spectacor, Paciolan will operate as a separate entity from Comcast-Spectacor’s New Era Tickets division, and will continue to provide its services to certain college athletics programs, performing arts organizations, arenas, professional sports teams, and museums. Paciolan will also have the right to list events it services on ticketmaster.com in order to help clients reach more consumers and sell more tickets.

“This is a very exciting opportunity for our company as we continue to grow into a total entertainment provider of national and international scope,” said Comcast-Spectacor President Peter Luukko. “Paciolan technology is highly desired and has an outstanding reputation in the industry. As part of the Comcast-Spectacor family of companies, Paciolan will be able to benefit from many synergistic opportunities involving our roster of clients throughout the world.

“We thought very highly of (Paciolan CEO) Dave Butler and (Paciolan Founder) Jane Kleinberger during the period we were minority owners of Paciolan (2004-08),” added Luukko. “We look forward to extending our relationship with both of them and their entire team.”

“We are so excited to unite our client-focused approach with the strength of Comcast-Spectacor,” said Dave Butler, CEO of Paciolan. “Our tremendous agility and focus, when combined with Comcast-Spectacor’s support, will enable us to better provide our clients with world-class ticketing, fundraising and marketing solutions.”

Paciolan’s technology provides its clients with customized ticketing, fund development, marketing, and access management functionality with which to sell and manage their own tickets in house and to build and manage life-long relationships with their patrons. Paciolan’s patron-centric solution revolves around a single database which gives venues easy-to-access purchasing, donation, demographic and attendance information on each customer.

“We are thrilled to join the Comcast-Spectacor family as we strive to be the best client-driven organization in the market,” said Jane Kleinberger, Founder of Paciolan. “Now, more than ever, we are focused on delivering industry-leading products and services you’ve come to expect from Paciolan for over 30 years.”

With the addition of Paciolan, Comcast-Spectacor will now be positioned to present arenas, stadiums, theaters, teams and entertainers with numerous options from which to select the ticketing solution that best meets their specific goals and objectives, according to Luukko.

“Teams, entertainers, shows, and the venues in which they play or perform will be able to either license Paciolan technology directly or contract with our full-service ticketing company, New Era Tickets for complete ticketing services,” said Luukko.

Founded in 1980, Paciolan has provided sports and entertainment venues with solutions for all of their ticketing needs for over 30 years. Today, Paciolan powers ticketing, fundraising and marketing solutions for more than 200 organizations in North America, including a range of college athletics programs, performing arts organizations, arenas, professional sports teams, museums and attractions.

Comcast-Spectacor (comcast-spectacor.com) is the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company which owns the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL), the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), two Philadelphia arenas, the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum, and four Flyers Skate Zone community ice skating and hockey rinks. In addition, Comcast-Spectacor is also the principal owner of Global Spectrum, the fastest growing firm in the public assembly management field with more than 85 facilities throughout the United States and Canada; Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage service provider; New Era Tickets, a ticketing and marketing company for public assembly facilities; Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company; and Paciolan, a leading ticketing technology software provider. In a partnership with Disson Skating, Comcast-Spectacor annually produces 10 nationally televised figure skating spectaculars on NBC.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010