Ticketing platform Eventbrite is set to be bought by the acquisition hungry Bending Spoons, the Milan-based business that has hoovered up an assortment of digital tools and platforms in recent years, including note taking app Evernote, events platform Meetup, video hosting service Vimeo and WeTransfer, the “how do I send this big file” platform once beloved by producers and video makers.
TechCrunch describes Bending Spoons as a business that “buys and revitalises stagnating tech companies”, and it usually begins that revitalisation process by cutting costs. Many of its past acquisitions have been notable because of the significant job cuts that followed the deal, with 75% of WeTransfer's employees being axed after it became part of the spoon bending empire.
While it’s not yet clear what kind of downsizing will follow the $500 million acquisition of Eventbrite, Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari says the deal will allow the ticketing service to “accelerate innovation” and “strengthen its tools and resources”.
In an official statement announcing the planned acquisition, Ferrari reveals that he has already identified “a few opportunities” that he wants to pursue with the Eventbrite team - or at least with those team members that he doesn't fire.
That includes “a dedicated messaging feature, introducing AI for easier event creation and improving searchability”. Plus “a system for the secondary ticket market”, which is interesting timing, given the ticket resale market is now facing ramped up regulation in multiple markets.
At least some of that presumably aligns quite well with the focus in some parts of the music industry on the superfan opportunity, and may be a natural fit against another potential superfan destination within the Bending Spoons group, Vimeo, which can deliver private gated streams of video content.
Eventbrite launched in 2006, seeking to make it easier for event organisers operating at all levels to offer digital ticketing, something that was actually quite innovative at the time. It came to dominate what, for a period, was a competitive marketplace of ticketing start-ups, acquiring rivals Ticketfly and Ticketscript along the way.
Despite being successful in certain parts of the wider events industry, and at the grass roots level more generally, Eventbrite was always going to struggle to compete when it comes to ticketing at the upper end of live music.
While it had a decent platform and gave event organisers access to lots of data about ticket-buyers, it was competing with established ticketing giants like Ticketmaster when it came to bigger concerts and tours, where venues and promoters usually look to ticketing partners to provide cash flow, financial kickbacks and marketing support, in addition to a platform for actually selling the tickets.
Though, arguably, the presence of Eventbrite in the market did nevertheless force some incumbents to up their own innovation and focus on better user experience for both ticket buyers and event promoters.
Eventbrite’s growth led to a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018 with a heady $1.76 billion valuation. But the company’s share price began a fairly quick decline after that, even before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the live industry for eighteen months.
The company’s valuation saw some recovery once the worst of the pandemic was over, but then continued its decline. Hence why Bending Spoons can now snap the company up for $500 million.
That deal has already been endorsed by Eventbrite’s board, but is still subject to regulator and shareholder approval. Assuming that all goes through, the hope is for the transaction to close in the first half of 2026.