On Friday March 21st ticket platform StubHub filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Last summer the company was hoping to go public, but is now seeing that dream come to fruition.
Stubhub Files for IPO
Stubhub applied under the name “STUB” after selling over 40 million tickets in 2024. The company did $1.77 billion in revenue, a whopping 279.5 year-over-year increase. This is due to a large increase in sales, but those came with a huge increase in operating costs. Their operating income was reported to be $138 million in 2024, down big from $253 million in 2023.
Last year the company was hoping to go public, but delayed the process. At the time they had a target valuation of about $16.5 billion, but delayed the decision due to unfavorable market conditions. However, now the company is full steam ahead on going public. In the filing for the IPO, Stubhub touched on how this move helps them achieve their mission. The statement reads “We believe we operate the largest global secondary ticketing marketplace for live events.” The company also believes that their “business model has achieved scale with high growth and generated significant revenue, profit and cash flow. We connect fans around the world with sellers who use our marketplace to reach passionate fans and price tickets efficiently.”
IPOX CEO Josef Schuster said “StubHub’s filing follows on the recent filings of other high-profile deals set to go public soon, including CoreWeave and Klarna. This indicates a recovering U.S. IPO market with owners seeing a window of opportunity to go public.” He also added that “Stubhub remains one of the most closely watched IPO this year and ahead of FIFA 2026.”
Potential Risks
The filing is likely very closely watched due to the potential “risks and uncertainties” that come with the Stubhub business model. Stubhub themselves acknowledges this. The statement also said “Our business depends on supply and demand for and continued occurrence of large-scale sports, concerts, theatre and other live events, and any decrease in the number of such events or the willingness of consumers to attend such events could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.”
Additionally, “changes in internet search engine algorithms and dynamics, or any limitation or discontinuation of support by such search engines for our paid search results, could have an adverse impact on traffic for our sites and ultimately, our business, financial condition and results of operations.” However, weaknesses are not just external for the company. Stubhub also said that they ” have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to remedy these material weaknesses, experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to continue to design, implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.”
It will be interesting to see what happens to both Stubhub and the events market. To stay up to date with that and all financial news, be sure to keep checking in with Due.com.
Featured Image Credit: iMin Technology; Pexels: Thank You!
