StubHub files for IPO as companies start lining up to go public

StubHub, an online marketplace for reselling tickets, on Friday filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “STUB.”

In its prospectus for an initial public offering, the company said it had a net loss of $2.8 million on revenue of $1.77 billion for 2024, compared with a $405 million profit on $1.37 billion in revenue for 2023.

StubHub has been a longtime player in the ticketing industry since its launch in 2000. It was purchased by eBay for $310 million in 2007, but reacquired by its co-founder Eric Baker in 2020 for $4 billion through his new company Viagogo.

More than 40 million tickets were sold on StubHub’s marketplace last year from roughly 1 million sellers, the company said in its prospectus.

StubHub had eyed an IPO last year, but it shelved its plans due to stagnant market conditions, CNBC previously reported.

Online ticketing rival SeatGeek was evaluating a potential IPO last year, according to media reports. Bloomberg reported in June that Citigroup and Wells Fargo joined son the company’s planned listing. Other StubHub competitors include Vivid Seats, which was taken public via a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, and Live Nation.

After an extended IPO lull dating back to early 2022, the market is showing clear signs of thawing. Artificial intelligence infrastructure provider CoreWeave is expected to debut next week. Klarna, a provider of buy now, pay later loans filed its IPO prospectus last Friday. Earlier in March, Hinge Health, a provider of digital physical therapy services, filed with the SEC.

Cloud software vendor ServiceTitan hit the market in December, marking the first significant venture-backed tech IPO since Rubrik’s debut in April. A month before that, Reddit started trading on the NYSE.

There haven’t been many other tech IPOs of note in the U.S. since late 2021, when rising interest rates and soaring inflation pushed investors out of risky assets.