Bending Spoons, a company that buys and revitalizes stagnant tech companies, has agreed to buy Eventbrite for about $500 million, a far cry from $1.76 billion the company was worth when it went public in 2018.
Just like many of Bending Spoons’ previous acquisitions, including Evernote, Meetup, Vimeo and AOL, Eventbrite has a strong brand, but the company’s business has stalled, according to audited financials.
The event marketplace and ticketing company was founded in 2006 by husband and wife team Julia and Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage. During its 12 years as a private company, the one-time tech darling has raised about $330 million in venture capital from top investors like Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management.
Unlike traditional private equity firms, Bending Spoons buys companies it intends to hold forever, with the goal of making them profitable by cutting costs, raising prices and introducing new product features. In October, Bending Spoons announced a massive $270 million funding round that valued the company at $11 billion.
In addition to Bending Spoons, other investors pursue the strategy of acquiring, fixing, and holding on to defunct software companies, often referred to as “zombie businesses.” These companies include Constellation Software, Curious, Microscopic, SaaS.group, Arising Venturesand Calm capital.
Andrew Dumont, founder and CEO of Curious, told TechCrunch that the company buys “great companies” at low prices and quickly revives them to achieve margins of 20% to 30%.
Audited annual revenue was flat at about $325 million for both fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023. Bending Spoons agreed to pay about 1.7 times Eventbrite’s trailing 12-month revenue of $295 million. Despite this seemingly low earnings multiple, Eventbrite shareholders will receive $4.50 in cash per share, an 81% premium over the previous day’s closing price of $2.48.
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