On Friday, March 21st, secondary ticketing marketplace StubHub filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the SEC, aiming for a valuation of $16.5 billion.
As a pioneer in online ticket reselling, StubHub reported gross merchandise sales (GMS)—the total amount customers paid for transactions and fulfillment—of $8.7 billion in 2024. This marked a 27% increase from the previous year. The company facilitated the sale of more than 40 million tickets from over 1 million unique sellers across 200 countries and territories.
In 2024, StubHub generated $1.77 billion in revenue, reflecting a 29.4% rise from 2023. However, the company reported a net loss of $2.8 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) stood at $298.7 million, a nearly 16% decline from $353.9 million in 2023. The company carries a long-term debt of $2.33 billion. This is almost 8X its adjusted EBITDA for 2024.
The proceeds from the IPO will primarily be used to reduce StubHub’s debt, with the remainder allocated to general corporate purposes. This includes working capital, operating expenses, and capital investments. The company also indicated that a portion of the funds could go toward acquisitions or investments in new products and technologies.
According to its S-1 filing, StubHub considers itself the leader in secondary ticketing. It has also expanded into primary ticketing, generating over $100 million in GMS in 2024. They had this to say:
“We believe our value proposition, providing broadened distribution and superior pricing intelligence through an open distribution model, is well-positioned to attract more content rights holders to use our direct issuance solution,”
StubHub outperforms many competitors in transaction volume. In 2024, Vivid Seats reported a gross transaction value (GTV) of $3.9 billion. Eventbrite, a primary ticketing platform, reported $3.2 billion. Ticketmaster, which does not separate primary and secondary ticketing data, recorded a total GTV of $34.7 billion.
Founded in 2000 by Erik Baker, StubHub was acquired by eBay in 2007. Baker later launched Viagogo, a competing secondary ticketing platform in Europe, which went on to acquire StubHub in 2020. Ahead of the IPO, Baker holds approximately 5% of Class A shares and 100% of Class B shares, granting him more than 90% of the voting rights. Other significant Class A shareholders include Madrone Partners (27.1%), WestCap Management (11.0%), Bessemer Venture Partners (9.6%), PointState Capital (5.6%), and Declaration Partners (5.3%).