eBay buys StubHub, online ticket reseller, for $310M
StubHub, an online site for reselling tickets to events, has been acquied by eBay for $310 million, minting the latest Silicon Valley millionaires in co-founders Jeff Fluhr and Eric Baker.
The controversial company has grown steadily, badgering eBay’s business for years. About 30 professional and college sports teams encourage fans to StubHub as a sort of safe haven in the reselling market, even as the New England Patriots have sued the company, saying it is encouraging fans to break anti-scalping laws (StubHub sued back).
Fluhr, 32 (pictured right), and Baker, 33 (pictured left), met as classmates at Stanford’s business school in 2000 and founded the company thereafter. According to Dow Jones (sub required), Fluhr owns 16 to 18 percent of StubHub, while Baker owns 10 percent.
Investors Allen & Co, Blue Water Capital, Pequot Ventures and Staenberg Venture Partners backed the company with a mere $15 million over the years, suggesting a profitable return for everyone.
The company had revenue last year of close to $100 million, and earnings of about $10 million before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to the Dow Jones.
Competing start-up, Razorgator, backed by Kleiner Perkins, is still fighting away. It raised $26 million in 2005.
StubHub’s Baker, meanwhile, recently raised more than $20 million from Index Ventures and others to launch a similar company, Viagogo, to go after the European market.
(Photo credit: Chris Hardy, SF Chron)
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
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http://www.quora.com/What-is-StubHubs-annual-revenue#ans621624 What is StubHub's annual revenue? – Quora
