ATG Entertainment lines up £500 million bid for TodayTix, sharpening its West End edge

ATG Entertainment is preparing a bid for TodayTix valued at about £500 million, a move that would deepen the theatre giant’s grip on West End ticketing and distribution.

TodayTix, based in New York and backed by Great Hill Partners, has appointed LionTree to run a sale. Events platform Fever is understood to be among potential rival bidders, with first round offers due this week. None of the parties has commented publicly.

Woking based ATG was founded in 1994 by Sir Howard Panter and Dame Rosemary Squire as the Ambassador Theatre Group. Much like Bob Wankel’s Shubert Organization in New York, the pair built a portfolio of venues and produced dozens of shows, including recent versions of CABARET and PRETTY WOMAN. They left the company in 2016, three years after a £450 million takeover by Providence Equity. Today the business owns 72 venues across the UK, the US and Europe, including the Lyceum and Savoy in London, and the Bristol Hippodrome and Liverpool Empire. It has more than 11,000 employees and reported annual revenue of £880 million last year. ATG already operates its own ticketing business, however buying TodayTix would be a major step into the mobile market.

TodayTix was founded in 2013 by Brian Fenty and Merritt Baer. By shifting sales to smartphones, the platform enabled theatres to move discounted, last minute tickets up to an hour before curtain. It introduced paperless tickets to the West End in 2015 and, by 2023, had grown UK revenues to more than £40 million. Great Hill Partners led a $73 million investment round in 2019. The company has expanded through acquisitions, buying Encore Tickets and, in 2022, London based Secret Cinema in a deal reported at about $100 million. Secret Cinema is currently presenting Grease in Battersea Park.

If successful, an ATG takeover would more tightly connect a major venue operator with one of theatre’s most recognisable mobile platforms. That could reshape how late release and discounted inventory reaches audiences in London and beyond. ATG declined to comment. TodayTix, Great Hill Partners and LionTree did not respond to requests for comment.