What’s Behind Blackstone’s Deal for Events Tech Firm PSAV?
Photo Credit: Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder, Reddit, on the Center Stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Collision / Diarmuid Greene
Skift Take
After a failed initial public offering, PSAV is now in the hands of Blackstone. Time will tell if the move ends up increasing costs for event professionals as PSAV inevitably looks to expand its scale in the marketplace. The competition between hotels selling their own offerings and companies like PSAV will be fascinating to watch.
Better technology has transformed the event experience, but everything comes with a cost.
Skift Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill examined the strange case of event technology leader PSAV being scooped up by private equity giant Blackstone. The move hints at even more consolidation in the sector, and Blackstone is making a big bet that outsourcing event audiovisual production is a business that will continue to scale globally. PSAV has been gobbling up competitors regularly, and now it will have a big war chest to continue doing so.
Hotels in North America are enjoying strong demand and pricing power, and are eager to force events to pay for their in-house technology services instead of outsourced options like P
