nasdaq sfxe industry concert promoter music genre electronic music predecessor live nation de facto founded june 2012 2012 06 founder robert f. x. sillerman ceo headquarters new york city united states key people greg consiglio president and coo kevin arrix executive vice president cro chris stephenson cmo website sfxii.com sfx entertainment is an american live events conglomerate founded by media entrepreneur robert f. x. sillerman . the company was formed in june 2012 as a new incarnation of sillerman s previous live events company of the same name the present live nation . sfx focuses primarily on live events and other properties relating to electronic dance music edm and its associated culture . its holdings include ownership of various major electronic music promoters and festival brands such as tomorrowland electric zoo stereosonic voodoo experience and a 50 % stake in rock in rio among others . the company also holds events at several nightclubs in the miami area the online music store beatport and several music oriented web development firms . the company went public on the nasdaq in october 2013 . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 2012 2013 1.3 2013 present 1.3.1 decline bankruptcy 2 assets 2.1 festivals and promoters 2.2 digital 3 references 4 external links history edit early history edit sfx entertainment was formed by robert f. x. sillerman in the 1990s . its business model surrounded the acquisition and consolidation of regional concert promoters into a single national entity . in 2000 sillerman sold the company to the radio broadcasting company clear channel communications for 4.4 billion usd . 1 clear channel entertainment was spun off in 2005 to form live nation and merged with ticketmaster in 2009 to form live nation entertainment . as of 2012 live nation is the largest concert promoter in the world . 2 3 4 5 2012 2013 edit in june 2012 sillerman publicized his intent to focus on the growing electronic dance music market by reviving the sfx brand to form a new conglomerate in the electronic music industry . similarly to the past incarnation of sfx the company s business model focuses on the consolidation and acquisition of independent edm promoters along with an additional focus on providing digital platforms for fans to connect . sillerman expected to spend close to 1 billion on acquisitions within the first year of operations alone ; at the time of the company s launch sfx was in negotiations with around 50 different promoters for possible acquisitions . 6 sfx s first acquisitions included disco donnie estopinal s disco productions miami nightclub owners opium group and miami marketing group and the tour life in color then known as dayglow . 7 8 9 however the opium group deal fell through during the due diligence phase . 10 by contrast to the previous sfx sillerman intended the new company to be more focused on building relationships and experiences for fans . in response to critics who believed that sfx may commercialize the largely underground electronic music industry sillerman stated that if you buy great and successful businesses you try to empower them to do what they do . and in this case what they do is provide great entertainment . if you or anyone can ever find an example of someone from sfx telling them how much to charge for a bottle of cristal at liv i ll give you my shares of sfx . 11 sillerman has emphasized his belief that the live events industry can not be operated in a centralized manner noting that sfx is decentralized with full power invested in the entrepreneurs who have made these businesses . 9 in january 2013 sfx named chris stephenson as its chief marketing officer he had previously been the cmo of interscope records and is the ceo of fellow sillerman venture viggle . the company also made several additional purchases including new orleans multi genre voodoo experience festival . 9 sfx also announced a joint venture with the dutch promoter id & t with an intent to organize north american events id & t previously partnered with live nation to hold the first ever american edition of its sensation tour at barclays center in brooklyn . 9 12 13 in february 2013 sfx acquired beatport an online music store specializing in electronic music . in particular sillerman felt that the website provided a massive platform for both artists and fans to interact ; being consistent with his goals for the company . 3 8 the following month during the winter music conference in miami sfx announced that it would acquire a 75 % stake in id & t and that it would organize a spin off of its flagship festival tomorrowland known as tomorrowworld in the atlanta area in september 2013 . 8 the company also received a 10 million investment from the communications services and marketing company wpp . 12 14 2013 present edit in june 2013 sfx announced an ipo and began trading on the nasdaq on october 9 2013 . sillerman was joined by the dutch producer afrojack at the nasdaq marketsite that morning to ring the opening bell . 15 16 following its ipo sfx also reached deals to acquire companies focused on digital properties ; the fan monetization platform tunezy and the web development companies arc90 and fame house . 17 it also acquired totem onelove an australian promoter who organizes the stereosonic festival among others . 18 19 in november 2013 sfx acquired made event the organizers of new york city s electric zoo festival . sillerman considered the purchase to be a strategic move as the company would now have a stronger presence in the new york market . 20 it also acquired the german promoter i motion organizers of the nature one festival among others for 21 million 21 and reached a deal with roberto midina organizer of the rock in rio festival series to acquire a 50 % stake in a new entity that will own the rock music festival . sillerman also disclosed plans to bring the festival to the united states for the first time ever . 22 in december 2013 sfx acquired a 75 % stake in paylogic a european online ticketing company . paylogic s services are prominently used by id & t and will be phased in across sfx s other event brands over time as deals with other providers such as eventbrite and disco donnie expire . sillerman singled out paylogic for its ability to handle large surges of ticket sales as had been demonstrated at tomorrowworld the first u.s. event to use the system . 23 on january 6 2014 iheartmedia inc. formerly clear channel media and entertainment ; the company which coincidentally sillerman sold the original sfx to in 2000 announced a marketing partnership with sfx which will see the two firms collaborate on edm related content for its digital and terrestrial radio outlets including a beatport top 20 countdown show which will air on some of clear channel s major market contemporary hit radio stations a national talent search and an original live music series in the style of its jingle ball concerts . the partnership expanded upon iheartmedia s existing edm oriented outlets such as evolution which encompasses a digital radio station on iheartradio and terrestrial outlets in boston and miami . iheartmedia staff including john sykes believed that the deal particularly the beatport countdown show would help provide a higher level of national exposure to current and upcoming edm artists its syndication division also produces the american top 40 . 5 24 25 in february 2014 sfx acquired react presents organizers of chicago s spring awakening along with clubtix and west loop management . 26 in april 2014 sfx announced a partnership with simon cowell s syco entertainment and t mobile to produce a new edm focused television reality series ultimate dj . 27 in september 2014 sfx acquired brazilian promoter plus talent who organize xxxperience and tomorrowland brazil . 28 on october 10 2014 sfx acquired listn a montreal based startup that developed a mobile app which allowed users to browse their friends music collections . listn s employees were reassigned to beatport and the service was phased out . 29 in november 2014 despite a total revenue of 143.5 million in the third quarter of 2014 a number boosted by the large number of sfx managed festivals that occurred during the quarter sillerman reported that sfx was undergoing a significant restructuring and consolidation process that would involve a not insignificant shift in assignments and reduction in workforce all of which will go to improve efficiency and of course to improve our ebitda . 30 later in the month sfx acquired a 50 % stake in alda events a dutch promoter who produces the concert tours of armin van buuren and hardwell along with the amsterdam music festival . alda will remain independently operated but its founder allan hardenberg also joined sfx as the managing director of its global touring division . 31 on january 26 2015 sfx announced restructuring at the executive level greg consiglio was named president and chief operating officer of sfx entertainment while kevin arrix was named chief revenue officer and executive vice president . both consiglio and arrix hold the same positions at viggle . id & t s ritty van straalen became ceo of live entertainment . additionally it was announced that sfx would under a three year pact assume the operation of viggle s sales staff who will work for both sfx and viggle ; sillerman explained that the viggle revenue team brings an immediate new dimension while combining the sfx inventory provides viggle with more scale attractive to a broader base of advertisers . 32 33 decline bankruptcy edit on february 25 2015 sillerman announced a proposal to buy out sfx s public stock at 4.75 per share to take the company private and support exploring a potential sale . he felt that the offer would provide substantial value and flexibility to all shareholders and was a substantial premium to its current value . 34 by august 2015 the value of sfx stock had decreased considerably going as low as 91 cents per share . 35 on august 14 2015 the company failed a takeover bid initiated by sillerman valued at 5.75 a share . 36 according to the los angeles times sfx entertainment is looking into strategic alternatives until october 2015 to determine the sale of the company . 37 the company extended its takeover bid deadline in october 2015 . 38 in november 2015 sillerman breached a preferred investment of 30 million into sfx entertainment . 39 also in november sebastian solano founder of sfx s life in color brand was named ceo of id & t north america and made event . 40 on january 13 2016 the company announced that it had defaulted on a 10.8 million loan after missing a january 3 2016 interest payment of 3 million . 41 on january 15 2016 sfx announced that it had received 20 million in new funding . 42 on february 1 2016 sfx entertainment filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy . the company plans to restructure as a private entity and engage in a debt for equity swap with its bondholders . sillerman also stepped down as ceo effective immediately ; he will remain chairman and retain his 40 % stock interest in the company . of the situation he stated that this expression of confidence from our lenders is testimonial to the vibrancy and potential of our business and that with the restructuring we have the opportunity to achieve all that sfx can and will be . the bankruptcy and transition is not expected to affect any of sfx s businesses although the fate of the u.s. tomorrowworld festival whose 2015 edition was marred by infrastructural problems due to bad weather 43 44 is uncertain . the