StubHub, a ticketing software program firm, has held talks with bankers in current weeks about holding an preliminary public providing earlier than the top of the yr, two folks with information of the matter mentioned, testing Wall Road’s urge for food for a return of tech I.P.O.s.
The talks are preliminary, mentioned the folks, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of the discussions have been personal. StubHub instructed Wall Road analysts in an investor assembly on Thursday that it was aiming to boost greater than $1 billion in a public providing, in line with one attendee.
The tech public providing market has gotten off to a sluggish begin this yr. However a rising variety of corporations seem able to ponder public listings, regardless of market volatility stemming from President Trump’s fixed modifications to financial insurance policies.
Among the many tech corporations exploring listings this yr are CoreWeave, a supplier of cloud computing companies for A.I. corporations, which unveiled its investor prospectus on Monday. Discord, the social chat app in style with the online game group, has additionally met with funding bankers to debate preparations for an I.P.O.
A consultant for StubHub didn’t reply to a request for remark.
StubHub, a ticket reselling website based in 2000 by Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr, grew rapidly in its early days. Folks might use the positioning to purchase secondary-market tickets for all the things from concert events to sports activities occasions.
In 2006, Mr. Baker, who was pushed out amid tensions with Mr. Fluhr, based ViaGogo, the same ticketing firm targeted on European ticket reselling and occasions. In 2019, ViaGogo introduced it was shopping for StubHub for $4 billion.
Shortly after, the Covid pandemic hit, with lockdowns placing concert events and stay performances on maintain and in impact kneecapping 95 p.c of StubHub’s enterprise. Mr. Baker weathered the storm, and the corporate noticed a surge in enterprise as lockdowns lifted and followers returned to venues en masse.
The corporate eyed an I.P.O. final yr at a $16.5 billion valuation, the folks with information of the talks mentioned, however shelved its plans amid a dearth of public listings of comparable corporations.
Just lately, there have been issues on Wall Road that ticketing corporations are seeing slower gross sales progress as followers cool on concert events after an preliminary surge of post-pandemic curiosity.
However executives at StubHub have mentioned its enterprise continues to be rising. The corporate grew its gross ticket gross sales by near 50 p.c within the final three months of 2024, mentioned one attendee of the investor assembly on Thursday.
