Investors Line Up For Eventbrite's Wall Street Debut

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. LYV, its Ticketmaster service and eBay Inc. EBAY’s StubHub create some of the strongest competition in the ticketing space. 

On Thursday, shares of both companies dropped, perhaps in response to the newest key player, Eventbrite EB. The management and ticket service offers scheduling and payment systems for events on an online platform.

What Happened

The ticket service contender now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “EB.” After originally pricing the IPO in a range between $19 and $21, the company recently raised the range to between $21 and $23.

The revised range increased the minimum target price by 10.5 percent and the maximum by 9.5 percent, reported Alex Wilhelm of Crunchbase News. 

 “Both are healthy valuation and capital-raise upgrades for a firm that hasn’t posted an operating profit, let alone net profit in any reported quarter. However, Eventbrite has growth in its corner and a strong history of operating and free cash flow.”

Eventbrite decided on a $23 price point, selling 10 million shares to raise $230 million.

Eventbrite hopes to increase capitalization and pay off debt, according to its S-1 filing. The company reported 46.7 million ticket sales in 2017 and has raised $332 million in its 12 years as a private company.

How It Traded

Eventbrite shares soared on their Wall Street debut, trading up 66.57 percent at $38.25 as of midday Thursday.

“I think the appetite is reaffirming for us that we have a strong business and decades more to go,” CEO Julia Hartz told CNBC.

“We really are focused on investing in the future. Whether that’s expanding into new categories or new countries, that’s really where we’re focused and I think that we’ve proven that we can be great stewards of capital.”

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Photo courtesy of Eventbrite.