This time it isn’t concert tickets Eric Baker is selling. It’s shares of StubHub Holdings Inc., the company he co-founded and has owned on and off for a quarter century.
The 51-year-old chief executive officer filed on Friday for a public listing of shares in the business, which generated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $299 million on sales $1.77 billion last year. The company sold more than 40 million tickets in 2024.
Baker holds 5.2 per cent of the Class A shares and, with his Class B shares that carry 100 votes each, has more than 90 per cent of the voting power in the company before the offering, according to the filing. That will allow him to control the company, StubHub said. Pricing for the shares and valuation of the business weren’t disclosed. Proceeds will be used to reduce debt and invest in the business.
The former McKinsey & Co. and Bain Capital staffer started StubHub in 2000, with Jeff Fluhr, a classmate from Stanford University. The idea came to Baker when he was trying to score tickets to a sold-out showing of The Lion King on Broadway, according to the filing.
The pair looked to take the resale of concert and sports tickets out of the hands of scalpers in dark alleys and parking lots and bring them into the internet age.
StubHub lets ticket holders list their seats on the site for free, and collects fees from both the buyer and seller if there’s a transaction. It’s a business that frequently earns the ire of consumers as the price for popular events can soar into the thousands of dollars.
But the service has won some loyal users because it guarantees the tickets are legitimate, something that’s not the case if negotiating a sale directly with another person.
Other online ticket resellers emerged in StubHub’s wake. Ticketmaster, a division of Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and the leader in primary ticket sales for arenas and concert tours, started its own foray into the secondary market.
After Baker and Fluhr clashed over the direction of the business, StubHub was sold to eBay Inc. in 2007 for $310 million. Baker founded Viagogo, a similar business in London, and raised funds from investors including Index Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Frustrated with what he saw as mismanagement of the business under eBay, Baker bought StubHub back for $4 billion. Unfortunately for Baker, his timing was off, and he closed the deal in February 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down live events all over the globe.
StubHub survived, however, thanks to the substantial cash cushion Baker had built into the company’s balance sheet. And he was ready when the world reopened and fans started shelling out big bucks again for seats for Taylor Swift concerts and the Super Bowl.
Sales rose, but profits declined last year, as Baker continues to invest in new initiatives. The company sees growth potential in offering tickets directly from artists and teams. Last year StubHub sold over $100 million worth of seats in the primary market.
“The market today for originally issued tickets is incredibly inefficient and ineffective,” Baker said in a letter to potential investors included in the filing. “It is often confusing, stressful and frustrating for consumers and leaves far too many seats empty for artists, teams and venues.”
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