Some 13 years ago (from a DJ perspective), Serato unleashed Scratch Live on an unsuspecting world. And since then, Serato has changed the industry, and been changed by the industry too. But one thing has remained consistent, and that’s the owners. Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw were the guys who had the idea for Serato via their Pitch ‘n Time algorithm, and along with their parents made up the shareholders.
But it seems that their parents have reached an age where they’d like to step away from business and retire, perhaps to play with all the DJ gear that their investment has helped build. And as you can imagine, 40% of one of the world’s biggest players in the DJ industry isn’t exactly pocket change. Thus Steve and AJ are looking for expressions of interest, in layman’s terms asking people if they would like a large but minority slice of that Serato pie.
Here’s the press release:
Serato opens up for investment / Serato minority shareholders possible exit
Serato, a world leader in music software, is exploring options for minority stake investment.
Young Ly, Serato CEO said: “ The business has never been better. It is the most used professional DJ software product globally, continues to lead the industry, and we have many exciting announcements still to come.
However, two minority shareholders, who are the parents of the founders Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw, are now at retirement age. So having helped fund Serato in its early days, they are now looking at options around their possible exit.”
The process started on the 12th of September with the business contacting suitable parties looking for expressions of interest. Otherwise, it’s business as usual for the software company having just launched the extremely well received Dj-808, and gearing up for another update to it’s hugely popular Serato DJ product.
What happens next?
There’s a fairly detailed process of first offers, then due diligence, and a final offer from those whose intentions and pockets match up with Serato’s goals and aims. The whole process should be wrapped up by the end of the year.
Having a minority share, it’s highly likely that there will be no tangible difference to our public perception of Serato at all. But I’m imagining what could happen if a potential investor smashes a good number of piggy banks and digs down the back of all their sofas and comes up with a number that turns Serato’s heads enough to let a majority share or even the whole thing go. Now that’s a popcorn moment.