A press release credited to Viagogo published Thursday evening announced the Swiss-based resale marketplace had completed its acquisition of StubHub, officially reuniting CEO Eric Baker with the California-based resale giant he co-founded while in graduate school.
“These two complimentary marketplaces will sell hundreds of thousands of tickets daily across more than 70 countries, giving fans seamless access to a wider selection of event tickets around the world, while sellers, teams and artists will have the ability to reach new audiences,” the release reads. “This provides a huge opportunity to consumers, who will have access to more competitive pricing and broader offerings.”
The StubHub brand will remain, as will the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.
A tweet from StubHub President Sukhinder Singh Cassidy confirmed the sale as complete, and thanked eBay for its role in the company’s growth since it purchased the marketplace over a decade ago.
Just this week, the merger appeared to be put on pause, as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority issued an order banning the firms from taking action that would “lead to the integration of the StubHub business with the Viagogo business.” The order included a requirement to report to the regulator every two weeks to ensure the two entities were operating independently for however long the competition review takes place. It is unclear how Thursday’s announcement takes that into consideration.
Originally announced in November after a lengthy period of speculation on what eBay would do with StubHub in the face of activist investors demanding the marketplace be spun off, the $4 billion transaction was expected to close by the end of March. Neither StubHub, its parent company eBay, nor Viagogo appear to have issued any public comments save for the press release on the completion of the merger.
We will update this breaking story as more information becomes available.
The full press release is included below:
viagogo Completes Acquisition of StubHub
The union of viagogo and StubHub gives consumers a truly global ticketing platform
GENEVA, Feb. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — viagogo, the globally active ticket marketplace for accessing live sports, music and entertainment events, today announced it has completed its acquisition of StubHub. The acquisition will give consumers wider access to their favorite events.
These two complementary marketplaces will sell hundreds of thousands of tickets daily across more than 70 countries, giving fans seamless access to a wider selection of event tickets around the world, while sellers, teams and artists will have the ability to reach new audiences. This provides a huge opportunity to consumers, who will have access to more competitive pricing and broader offerings.
viagogo will maintain the StubHub brand and its headquarters in San Francisco, CA.
About viagogo
Founded in 2006 by Eric Baker, viagogo was built with the aim of providing ticket buyers with the widest possible choice of tickets to events and to help ticket sellers reach the widest audience. Since its inception in 2006, viagogo has grown to be an important option for fans in Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America, and has partnered with many of the world’s leading brands in sports and entertainment. viagogo now serves customers in over 70 countries and processes millions of transactions annually.