StubHub Eyeing IPO, Aiming for $16.5B Valuation: Report

The ticket reseller, founded in 2000, is estimated to be carrying $2 billion in debt.

View of the company logo and office entrance for online ticket exchange company StubHub at its location on 40 East Balbo Drive in Chicago, Illinois, January 2019.

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Online ticket resale platform StubHub is considering going public as soon as this summer if it can secure a valuation of more than $16 billion, according to media reports.

The Information first reported on Friday (April 12) that StubHub is aiming for a valuation of $16.5 billion, or the valuation it received in 2021 during the company’s last fundraising round, and has been working with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs on the potential IPO.

StubHub’s valuation may be closer to $8 billion based on the value of similar, though smaller, rivals like VividSeats, the article stated. Moody’s estimates StubHub is carrying $2 billion in debt, a figure that is seven times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), according to The Information.

StubHub, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs did not respond to requests for comment about the potential timing of an IPO.

Founded in 2000, StubHub was sold to eBay in 2007 for a reported $310 million. In late 2019, its smaller rival, Viagogo, bought the ticketing marketplace from eBay for $4.05 billion in a combination cash and debt deal that was finalized months before the COVID-19 pandemic caused mass event cancellations.

StubHub temporarily cut its staff by two-thirds in March 2020 as it and other ticket resale companies struggled with a sharp drop-off in revenue and refund requests from customers.

In recent months, StubHub, Vivid Seats and other third-party ticketing sites have come under fire from lawmakers in several U.S. states that want to crack down on bots and ticket resellers, which they accuse of driving up prices. StubHub has said it supports banning misleading and speculative ticket sales.

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