Serato has been Sold to Canadian Technology Holding Company, Tiny
The sale was announced on March 31. The deal has yet to be finalized.
Serato has announced they are on the cusp of being sold. The buyer is a Canadian technology holding company called Tiny Ltd. The current price is $66 million for a 66% stake in the company, giving Tiny primary ownership.
According to a report, Serato is still very profitable, claiming a “35% compounded annual growth rate on number of paid subscribers over the last five years, with attractive margins.”
"We've always believed that Serato's strength lies in our ability to innovate and stay true to our community of artists. After 25 years of building and guiding this business with my co-founder Steve, we couldn't ask for a better partner than Tiny. Their long-term vision and strategic approach align with the future we've always envisioned for Serato. This partnership not only accelerates our growth but also provides the ideal long-term home for the next chapter of the business we've nurtured from the ground up," AJ Wilderland, Co-founder of Serato, said in the same report.
This is the second sale Serato has announced in the past few years. Back in 2023, AlphaTheta, the parent company of Pioneer DJ, was set to purchase the fellow DJ software company. However, that sale was blocked by the New Zealand Commerce Commission (Serato is a New Zealand-based company).
According to the NZCC’s chairman, Dr. John Small, the block was out of monopolization concerns, stating, “While other DJ software providers would remain in the market, we did not consider these rivals, or the possibility of a new DJ software provider entering the market in the near term, would be sufficient to replace the level of competition that would be lost with the merger.”
The sale with Tiny has yet to be closed, but given the lack of DJ software within their current portfolio it is unlikely a similar block will occur. Some other businesses under Tiny’s umbrella include the film-based social media site, Letterboxd, and the interface design firm, Metalab.
Learn more about what's happening with Serato in the latest episode of Beatsource Tech below. Follow these links to read how to integrate Serato into Beatport Streaming and Beatsource Streaming.
