Controversial secondary ticketing company StubHub is aiming for a valuation of up to $9.2 billion as it proceeds with its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange. According to a filing yesterday with the US Securities & Exchange Commission, the company is seeking to raise up to $851 million via the stock market listing, offering 34 million shares priced between $22 and $25 each.
StubHub Holdings Inc - which operates the StubHub platform in North America and Viagogo in the rest of the world - has been plotting its IPO for sometime, pushing it back on multiple occasions because of concerns around “market conditions” or, earlier this year, uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
That $9.2 billion valuation is significantly down on previous valuations. According to Reuters, citing data from Tracxn, the company was valued at $16.5 billion in 2021, a year after the StubHub US business merged with Viagogo, both companies having been founded by current CEO Eric Baker. As recently as last year, reports suggested the company would be aiming for that $16.5 billion valuation in any IPO.
Reuters reports that some investors believe the $9.2 billion figure is undervaluing the company, with some pegging it closer to $14 billion or $15 billion. One investor told the news agency, “I think they will end up pricing higher than that number for sure”.
The upper end of the live music business - which is where the professional ticket touts and scalpers who account for much of the trade on StubHub and Viagogo are buying and selling tickets - is currently booming.
Which in theory is good news for StubHub, which profits from the fees and commissions charged on resold tickets. Though in the first half of this year, while revenues were up 3% to $827.9 million, losses doubled to $111.8 million.
StubHub is also facing tightening regulation around ticket resale in an increasing number of markets. In the UK, the government is expected to make an announcement imminently about its plans to make good on a previous promise to introduce a price cap on ticket resale. Assuming it is properly enforced, the price cap will hit the commercial touts that use platforms like Viagogo to resell their tickets.
Even in the US, where secondary ticketing has traditionally been less controversial, there now seems to be more of an appetite to regulate, at both a state and federal level.
Trump has told federal agencies to do more to crack down on some of the dodgy tactics that are employed in the secondary ticketing market, and Live Nation - despite being active itself in ticket resale in the US - is now calling for a price cap to be introduced there too.
StubHub will presumably tell investors it can navigate these extra regulations, but it also lobbies hard against them, presumably because it knows price caps can be very damaging to its core business.