Online ticket resale marketplace Vivid Seats, which went public via a SPAC merger in 2021, is reportedly receiving acquisition offers from multiple equity firms looking to take the company private, according to a recent report from Vivid Seats . Burundi. Company officials reportedly hired a consulting firm to help gauge interest in a potential sale.
The acquisition frenzy caused the company’s stock price to rise 20% on December 30, and the stock price has continued to rise for more than a week after news of the acquisition first broke, closing at $4.57 per share today. Headquartered in Chicago, Vivid Seats was founded in 2001 by Jerry Bedniak and Eric Vasilatos A competitor to resale platform StubHub, it is popular with fans and ticket brokers for its ease of use and high traffic. In 2017, private equity firm GTCR acquired a majority stake in Vivid Seats. A year later, Bedniak and Vasilatos left the company and formed venture capital group Skybox Capital.
In 2021, Vivid Seats merged with Horizon Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed by Todd BoleyEldridge Industries (Stakeholder) advertising billboard Parent company PMC), now listed on Nasdaq under the stock code SEATS. Recent SEC filings show Eldridge owns 40% of Vivid’s Class A shares. Vivid is managed by CEO StanleyJoined the company in 2018.
In 2023, Vivid processed $3.9 billion worth of transactions ($3.2 billion in 2022), with full-year revenue growing 19% to $712 million, and adjusted EBITDA growing 25% to $142 million. Although year-end 2024 results are still weeks away, a recent Citi analyst note said the company remains an “attractive private equity acquisition candidate with a reasonably strong internal rate of return.”
According to an analyst report, Vivid is expected to hold about 25% of the North American ticket market, but its concert ticket market share is believed to be larger because 52% of its sales are related to music and 33% from sports. Key headwinds for the company include worries about a cooling consumer market after years of double-digit increases in concert ticket prices and concerns about an impending crackdown on secondary ticketing operations by federal authorities. A recent letter from the National Independent Talent Organization to the Federal Trade Commission complained that vendors at sites like Vivid and Stubhub often use illegal methods to purchase ticket inventory, including methods that violate the 2016 BOTS Act. Crackdowns on vendors who violate federal law could significantly reduce sales on Vivid’s website and negatively impact future revenue.
