DENVER, CO – Capstone Partners advised Rumblefish, Inc., a Portland, OR-based leader in music micro-licensing and YouTube monetization, on its sale to SESAC, Inc., a Nashville, TN-based leading performing rights organization and portfolio company of Rizvi Traverse. The acquisition is a key element of SESAC’s pursuit of a broader vision within music licensing across multiple rights categories and license-types. Rumblefish will operate as an independent subsidiary of SESAC with founder Paul Anthony Troiano continuing to serve as President & CEO, reporting to SESAC, Inc. Chairman and CEO John Josephson.
Rumblefish powers music offerings for leading platforms including YouTube, Vimeo and Shutterstock and issues over 50,000 micro-licenses daily across a licensed portfolio of over 5 million copyrights. As part of the transaction, SESAC will provide growth capital to accelerate Rumblefish’s existing offerings in music micro-licensing, YouTube monetization and license verification and expand its music data and rights platform.
“SESAC’s objective is to offer an expanded, more efficient licensing and administration model and our acquisition and investment in Rumblefish is a bold step in that direction,” said Chairman & CEO of SESAC, Inc. John Josephson. “The Rumblefish management team, leadership position in the music microlicensing space, and comprehensive music data and rights platform accelerate SESAC’s diversification plans considerably. SESAC is proud to join forces with Rumblefish to bring the highest level of service to music creators and music users.”
“We’re honored to become part of the SESAC family, helping realize the vision of a simplified world for music licensing and rights: full-service, multi-right, and multi-territory,” said Rumblefish Founder, President & CEO Paul Anthony Troiano. “Having SESAC and their parent, Rizvi Traverse, behind us is a game changer. We can now accelerate our plans to reach more music providers to grow our catalog, partner with even larger clients for additional licensing opportunities, and ultimately pay artists more money so that they can continue to make more music.”
Capstone Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to Rumblefish, Inc. in the transaction. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
