SFX to Acquire Bill Graham Presents

Top Northern California rock promoter Bill Graham Presents will be sold to a New York firm that hopes to become a major force in the nation’s live music industry. Officials at SFX Broadcasting Inc. said the pending $65-million acquisition of BGP, combined with a series of similar deals, will give it several new amphitheaters along with a unique capacity to market and promote concerts in several major U.S. cities. SFX’s other pending deals include plans to buy Contemporary Group, based in St. Louis, for roughly $90 million, and Concert/Southern Promotions, a major music promoter in the Southeast, for $15 million. Since its founding in the 1960s by Graham, who died in 1991, BGP has grown into a company with wide influence over Northern California’s live music scene.