Ticket search engine FanSnap scores $5.5M

Ticket search engine FanSnap scores $5.5M

FanSnap, a search engine that helps users find event tickets at the last minute, has landed $5.5 million in second-round financing to finish building out its service (currently in beta), and to add new ticket vendors. The round was led by General Catalyst Partners.

Before you think “Geez, as if we need another ticket site,” take a closer look. FanSnap isn’t the same as Ticketmaster and its ilk. It actually sits on a higher level, integrating seamlessly with feeds from other… Continue Reading

LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Updated

Thanks to the internet, selling tickets on the secondary ticket market — the act formerly known as scalping — has gone legit. EBay bought the market pioneer, StubHub, for $310 million. TicketMaster dropped $265 million to get its hands on TicketsNow, and top-tier VC firm Kleiner Perkins led a $26 million investment in RazorGator back in 2005. All of these companies make money charging sellers a 15 percent commission on the tickets they sell.

However, LiveStub,… Continue Reading

Roundup: Dash Navigation, Flock, Greenspan’s tell-all, and more

Roundup: Dash Navigation, Flock, Greenspan’s tell-all, and more

Here’s the latest action:

1) Dash Navigation opens platform
2) Flock releases new browser, with Facebook in sidebar
3) Patriots successfully sue ticket scalper, StubHub
4) Google’s great quarter: Net income up 46 percent
5) Brad Greenspan’s tell-all essay on MySpace
6) Microsoft releases Popfly, allowing non-geeks to build apps
7) Comcast steps away from Net Neutrality

Dash Navigation opens platform — Dash, you’ll recall is the cool GPS device that you can use in your car, and which will be constantly connected… Continue Reading

Viagogo invades US online ticket-scalping market

Viagogo invades US online ticket-scalping market

Some entrepreneurs are bold, or foolhardy, depending how you look at it.

Eric Baker, co-founder of online ticket scalper StubHub, left in 2004, before StubHub went on to sell to eBay in January for $310 million.

Instead, he started rival Viagogo in London in 2005. The company has just raised $30 million in a round led by Index Ventures.

Like Stubhub, Viagogo allows people to buy and sell previously-purchased tickets on the web for sports games, concerts and… Continue Reading

eBay buys StubHub, online ticket reseller, for $310M

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… Continue Reading