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

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: Event Tickets Are Big Business: European Startup Invades U.S. | Tekjuice.com

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:31:23 +0000

[...] for event tickets, is invading the U.S. market. It’s a European version of StubHub, which sold to eBay for $307 million back in [...]

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.

By: wtf bbq

wtf bbq — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:32:26 +0000

@anon

$1b how much is 2.5 %

you dont know much about money

enough said

By: anon

anon — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:55:33 +0000

#12 and #14, the $400m is ticket sales volume, not StubHub revs. StubHub only earns a small percentage on that (apparently around 2.5%; but that sounds low).

#25, it’s *all* cash (surprisingly; not sure why some stock wouldn’t be involved).

To the people who think eBay or anyone could duplicate StubHub given $400m: no, you can’t. It’s not that easy. Success involves *far* more than money.

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:19:30 +0000

woops -> here’s an article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/arti.....1/EBAY.TMP

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:18:42 +0000

chris, i believe it’s actually in cash -> here’s the AP article and its says in “cash”

By: Adrian Keys

Adrian Keys — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:16:53 +0000

Not sure how many people know how to build a company from the ground up. It may seem like a lot of money but if you are getting good technology, a captive market, good management and staff, contracts that are in the works, substantial hard assets…the price may not be all that bad.

Also bear in mind this is web 2.0 which would carry a much higher multiple….

I would not knock this price without the benefit or more information.