Comments on: It’s Official – eBay is Buying StubHub For $310 million

By: Technically Philly » Snipi closes second angel round, brings total raised to $1.4 million | Covering the Community of People Who Use Technology in Philadelphia.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:15:10 +0000

[...] The company has also added ticket marketplace StubHub co-founder Colin Evans to its Board of Advisers. Evans is now the Founder and Managing Partner of Sandwith Ventures, a Philadelphia- and Bay Area-based venture capital firm focused on angel and early-stage investments. StubHub was acquired by Ebay in an estimated $310 million deal, as TechCrunch reported in January 2007. [...]

By: The ‘Elephant in the Room’ | Concert Industry Ticket Talk — LIVE MUSIC BLOG.com

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:25:56 +0000

[...] “secondary ticket market” where Stubhub has been so successful (the company was recently acquired be eBay). Seems to be the case…[also via Hypebot]: “There’s lots of chatter about the secondary [...]

By: Complete List of 2007 Web / Technology Acquisitions » The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:06:32 +0000

[...] is an online ticket marketplace. Press Release | TechCrunch | GigaOm | Mashable | [...]

By: Loopt Hires Allen & Co. For Financing Or Sale

Loopt Hires Allen & Co. For Financing Or Sale — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:58:26 +0000

[...] $850 million sale to AOL, Powerset in their $100 millionish sale to Microsoft, Stubhub in their $310 million sale to eBay and (we believe) Ning in their half billion dollar valuation financing round. Among [...]

By: ColoradoJimH

ColoradoJimH — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:22:33 +0000

Be careful. StubHub sold me invalid tickets; the same could happen to you too. Read more:
http://www.stub...s.blogspot.com/

By: Everyone (DECE) v. Apple, doomed to failure

Everyone (DECE) v. Apple, doomed to failure — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:36:11 +0000

[...] look at what little has been successful. StubHub was starting to be successful at taking some bits of Ebay’s business. It did this by the [...]

By: linuxinternet.org » Blog Archive » Stubhub sends people to my blog

linuxinternet.org » Blog Archive » Stubhub sends people to my blog — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:02:01 +0000

[...] coming for me! If I don’t post again within a week, call the police and have them trawl eBay for a “South African Mac Blogger’s Corpse: OK [...]

By: TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Seatwave wins $25m Series C funding to expand

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:34:27 +0000

[...] London based Seatwave, like StubHub (acquired by eBay for $310 million) and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster for $265 million) resells tickets to major events. The [...]

By: Super Bowl Tickets At A Fraction Of The Price: Super Deal Or Super Swindle?

Super Bowl Tickets At A Fraction Of The Price: Super Deal Or Super Swindle? — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:49:15 +0000

[...] avoiding relatively tame markets like virtual goods). And they doubled-down last January with their $310 million acquisition of secondary ticket marketplace [...]

By: Mister Penguin

Mister Penguin — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:01:55 +0000

In my opinion, this helps eBay alot. eBay has acquired a TON of marketplaces now. Before you know it people WILL be seeping through the walls with StubHub. I haven’t even heard of StubHub either before, but I bet alot will find out soon.

It builds up eBay’s reputation if they acquire more marketplaces. Maybe it’s for the publicity and the profit… idk?

By: Abdelkader Barjiji » Blog Archive » eBay kauft StubHub - Volumen: ca. 320 Mio. $

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:12:44 +0000

[...] It’s Official – eBay is Buying StubHub For $310 million [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 04:42:29 +0000

It might be cheaper to build your own site, but in the long run it is cheaper to just buy the competition.

Competition gone = raise prices on eBay even more.

Pay fee on ebay, pay fee on paypal. They get you on both ends.

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:25:35 +0000

I’d never even heard of StubHub before this.

By: emraith

emraith — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:35:16 +0000

atleast in PA, theres a percentage thats the maximum tickets can be legally resold for, 1.5x face value i think it is? this seems to be regularlly ignored on ebay though, i’ve never sold tickets on there so I dont know if it prompts for the face value or what

By: Boo

Boo — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:32:04 +0000

Imagine how the people who actually sell tickets on ebay will feel after ebay steals their market from underneath them

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:00:56 +0000

@Amy Goodmann

I don’t think someone who links to a forex spam site should be lecturing EBay about ethics. Reselling tickets is legal in most places. Usually scalping laws control the resale of tickets on the site of the event. If a willing buyer and seller agree on a price for an item of limited quantity, I don’t see how that’s any different than any other product in the marketplace.

By: Amy Goodmann

Amy Goodmann — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:26:22 +0000

Is not this selling of tickets for profit usually called “scalping ” and is illegal in many places ?
Goes to show you when ebay makes a profit all is fine.
Lets hope that ebay is not as abusive with these paying customers as to their previous financial customer base !!

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 07:36:03 +0000

Crazy J, Of course you can always save by going to the source instead of a broker. How is an ordinary customer going to find a small broker in Arizona that isn’t on the first page of results and doesn’t spend on PPC. 2nd how can you say they are the worst of the big suppliers? I’ve never heard of them being late paying their suppliers. RazorGator leaves invoices open for 2 months and still doesn’t pay them. Every broker I talk to has the same problem. It’s hard to believe that a company that has received almost $50 million in funding the past 2 years can’t pay its bills.

By: CrazyJ

CrazyJ — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:56:13 +0000

First: “StubHub is rumored to be doing $10 million or so in profit on $400 million in gross annual sales, implying just over a 30x multiple to EBITDA.”
That should probably read “…$100 million or so…” (The short is that StubHub’s “profit” per sale is roughly 25% so $400M * 25% = $100M. In reality it is actually less because of overhead including the large payouts to teams to become the “official” reseller of that team.

Second: My company is one of StubHub’s largest suppliers – we’re in the top 5 and I have to say that StubHub is probably the WORST of all of the large secondary market ticket resellers. They have absolutely no idea how our industry works and ZERO understanding of the ticket business.

Third: You can save lots of money from buying from other ticket resellers because StubHub’s “market price” is always above what it is for other brokers in the secondary market. For example, my company adds the 15% sellers fee to our prices (so that we net out the same as our “asking” price) PLUS StubHub adds an additional 10% on top of that. Therefore if you buy my tickets on StubHub you’re paying at least a 25% premium than if you bought them from my company directly.

By: Drama 2.0

Drama 2.0 — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:52:17 +0000

Jonathan Jiang: we’re not debating whether Web 2.0 startups will catch on. A number will (and already have). The problem is that the ones that do seem to have a warped sense of “success” and what their value is. Case in point: Facebook. A $50 million/year (reported revenue) business with a finite market, fickle audience and many vulnerabilities (non-defensible technology, unpredictable ad market accounting for most revenue, etc.) is not worth $8 billion. I measure real success by profits (or successfully getting some idiot to overvalue your business and selling it to them).

By: Jonathan Jiang

Jonathan Jiang — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:35:17 +0000

@ Drama.#33

Web 2.0 valuations are insane. But some aren’t. Some of the few of the few of the few that will really catch on and become successful. Sooner or later, I would say in the near future, theres going to be a startup that will become the Web 2.0 market defining definition.

Just wait for it. It’ll come.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:12:25 +0000

@30

$10m profit on $400m total ticket sales = 2.5%.

Enough said.

By: Drama 2.0

Drama 2.0 — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:04:31 +0000

Chuck Schick: this valuation is rich, the Web 2.0 valuations are insane. It’s a no-brainer that StubHub’s valuation, while rich, can be justified. Some of the valuations being given to Web 2.0 startups, like Facebook and Slide, cannot be. I think it’s a decent acquisition for eBay and a big improvement in strategy after they bought Skype.

By: Superfly

Superfly — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:59:50 +0000

As a former eBayer with history in their Ticket business, I can tell you that the task of building a thriving ticket marketplace as a subset of a broader multi-purpose marketplace was extremely challenging. There were some basic product changes specific to the Tickets vertical that were glaringly necessary if eBay expected to accelerate in the category. Due largely to opportunity cost, those planned modifications have been languishing in the development queue. Or tabled by a rather tidy user agreement. Meanwhile competitors grabbed share with a hyper-focus on the unique needs of a secondhand tickets marketplace.

We can debate the valuation all night, but there was no way eBay was going to dominate the Tickets category without an acquisition.

By: anthropocentric

anthropocentric — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:38:26 +0000

I agree with Yaron.

Why wouldn’t eBay buy StubHub? Even if eBay invested 100MM it trying to build what StubHub already has it would not guarantee that they would achieve it.