Deezer is a music streaming platform with company headquarters in Paris. Founded in August 2007, the company has been led by CEO Jeronimo Folgueira since 2021.
As of 2023, Deezer had 9.3M subscribers.
Founded in August 2007, the company was previously led by CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht since December 2014.
Acquisition by Access Industries and further fuding
In September 2016, it was revealed that Access Industries – parent company to Warner Music Group – had acquired a controlling stake in Deezer in June that year.
This majority-takeover was the result of Access’s participation in a €100m ($109m) investment round in Deezer alongside telco Orange, originally announced in January 2016.
This was the second time that Access had invested in Deezer; it clubbed together with Idinvest to raise an initial €100m investment into the firm back in October 2012.
In August 2018, Deezer raised a further €160m ($185m) in funding from a group of investors that included both Access Industries and Orange, in addition to the Kingdom Holding Company and Rotana.
According to a press release, the investment valued Deezer at €1bn ($1.2bn)
Deezer: Rotata exclusivity in Middle East
Following Deezer’s €160m funding round in 2018, the platform announced a distribution agreement with Rotana across the Middle East and North Africa – including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Deezer later confirmed to MBW that this distribution agreement was a completely exclusive one, meaning that Rotana’s music would not appear on any other music streaming platform in the region.
Deezer: Grupo Salinas deal in LATAM
In July 2020, Deezer announced a deal with Grupo Salinas that it said would “shake up audio streaming in Mexico” – and improve its chances of becoming the No.2 streaming company in multiple regions across LATAM.
The deal sees one of the biggest producers of Spanish language TV in the world, TV Azteca – via its parent, Grupo Salinas – acquire a minority stake in Deezer.
In exchange, Deezer said it would receive the equivalent of US $40m in investment, in the form of a media and retail partnership with TV Azteca and Grupo Salinas over several years.
The agreement, said Deezer, valued its company at €1.3 billion (US $1.4 billion).
Deezer: Failed IPO in Paris
In October 2015, Deezer abandoned a planned IPO on the Paris stock exchange (Euronext) citing difficult “market conditions”.
Deezer’s announcement that it was pulling out of the IPO came just three days before it was supposed to take place, and raise between €300 million and €400 million on the public market.Music Business Worldwide