SXSW Stake Sold to P-MRC, Publisher of Rolling Stone and Vibe

South by Southwest (SXSW), the influential Austin-based festival highlighting the latest offerings in film, music and consumer technology, has sold an ownership stake to the P-MRC, the joint venture between Penske Media Corp. and MRC.

What Happened: SXSW was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and staged a scaled-down online-only event this year.

Although the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reported P-MRC took on a 50% stake in the financially ailing SXSW, which was forced to lay off 175 of its full-time employees after the 2020 event was scratched. SXSW’s management team will remain in place.

Roland Swenson, co-founder and CEO of SXSW, called P-MRC’s involvement “a true lifeline for us.”

P-MRC’s publishing brands include Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Variety and Vibe. Penske Media CEO Jay Penske praised SXSW as being “one of the most recognized brands for empowering creative talent and bringing together the brightest creators of our time.”

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Why It Matters: SXSW began in 1987 as a regional festival focused on Austin’s independent music scene. Its name was a riff on the Alfred Hitchcock film classic “North by Northwest.” The initial organizers expected a 150-person turnout but found themselves hosting over 700 attendees.

In 1994, the festival introduced film screenings and a multimedia component. Over the years, it became a launchpad for performing artists including singer James Blunt and the pop band Hanson, as well as the app Foursquare.

The 2007 SXSW Interactive event was notable for the attention given to the recently introduced Twitter TWTR platform, which saw its increase from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000 during the course of the festival.

SXSW has also attracted a wide range of guest speakers and performers, including President Barack Obama at the 2016 event and then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2017. Facebook, Inc. FB chieftain Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and by remote links, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, have addressed the event.

The last live SXSW in 2019 drew more than 73,000 attendees and generated a local economic impact of roughly $356 million, which included more than 12,800 direct hotel bookings and roughly $1.9 million in hotel occupancy tax revenue.

(Photo by Paul Hudson/Flickr Creative Commons.)