Billionaire Francois Pinault, Partners to Buy Deezer for $1.1B

Billionaire Francois Pinault and the other founders of Paris-based blank-check firm I2PO are buying music-streaming platform Deezer for €1.075 billion ($1.16 billion) and plan to take it public, according to a Bloomberg report Monday (April 18).

The combined entity will raise at least €120 million ($129.4 million) between original investors and new ones, and the entity is planning to list Deezer in Paris once the deal closes, which is expected to happen around July, three people familiar with the deal told Bloomberg.

Deezer competes with Spotify, Apple Music and other music-streaming platforms. Its biggest markets are France, Brazil and Germany and it wants to expand across the U.S. and the U.K., the sources said. It’s looking to grow through expanded partnership deals, including the one it has with broadcaster RTL in Germany.

In addition, Deezer wants to reach profitability and €1 billion ($1.08 billion) in revenue by 2025, according to a company statement.

CEO Jeronimo Folgueira will retain his role following the merger, while Chairman Guillaume d’Hauteville will be replaced by Iris Knobloch, one of I2PO’s founders and a former Warner Media executive, before the end of the year. Banker Matthieu Pigasse, the head of Centerview Partners in France, is the third founder of I2PO.

Deezer had canceled its previous attempt to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in 2015 because of market conditions.

Last week, ByteDance, operator of short video-sharing platform TikTok and Chinese cousin Douyin, launched music-streaming app Qishui Yinyue (“soda music” in Mandarin) to compete with platforms operated by Tencent Holdings and NetEase.

Related: TikTok Owner ByteDance Advances Music-Streaming Service on Mainland

Qishui Yinyue operates similar to Resso, the music-streaming app ByteDance introduced in some overseas markets three years ago.

The service provides more than 10 million music songs, according to the app’s landing page on the App Store. It allows Douyin users to sync their favorite music lists on the short video app. The app is still beta phase, which requires an invitation code.