Germany-based media conglomerate ProSiebenSat.1 is set to take a minority stake in France-based online music streaming service Deezer for an undisclosed amount, German daily Die Welt reported today.
The investment will be made as part of a deal to merge Deezer with Ampya, ProSiebenSat.1’s music streaming service, to create a business that would be the market leader in Germany, where long standing international services such as Spotfify and Napster are yet to build up a large user base.
Founded in 2006, Deezer can be accessed in more than 180 countries and the company claims to have about 16 million monthly active users, compared to 40 million for Spotify and the 250 million Soundcloud claimed it had in October last year.
Access Industries, the US-based conglomerate that owns Warner Music Group, invested $130m in Deezer in 2012, buying out shareholder France Telecom-Orange’s 11% stake in the process.
Deezer had raised almost $20m prior to the Access investment from venture capital firm Idinvest Partners, private equity fund Dotcorp Asset Management and CIC Finance subsidiary CM-CIC Capital Prive.