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StubHub sale speculation begins to gain ground
With parent company eBay announcing Tuesday that it was spinning off its Skype internet telephone company, speculation is beginning to mount that the online auctions giant might also shed its StubHub division.
There is no official indication that the company will sell off StubHub, which eBay bought in early 2007 for $307 million. StubHub is the nation's leading secondary ticket company, according to TicketNews's exclusive industry rankings, and it only trails rival Ticketmaster Entertainment as the largest overall ticketing company.
But, with the secondary market under siege by Ticketmaster and Live Nation executives, who are talking down the industry in hopes of bolstering their potential merger, now could be an optimal time for eBay to dispose of the business. Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff has said that he would consider selling its TicketsNow secondary ticket division, which has come under fire in both the U.S. and Canada for alleged unfair practices during the year since Ticketmaster bought it for $265 million.
StubHub officials referred any questions on the issue to eBay, but an eBay spokesperson did not return messages seeking comment.
According to press reports, eBay plans to spin off Skype in an initial public offering sometime in 2010 when it hopes financial markets will have improved.
In a piece on the All Things D Web site, Jeffrey Lindsay of Bernstein Research was quoted as saying, "It seems that eBay is going right back to basics, and is dispensing with the `we are an auction company' ethos that got them into so much trouble. We see StubHub as coming out of that era. We think the market in tickets is changing rapidly and there is a chance to sell StubHub at the very top. They might well take it and pursue a much more pure play retail/second hand portfolio and go back to geographic expansion of the marketplaces/PayPal core."
One ticketing executive who spoke to TicketNews but requested anonymity said he doubts eBay would unload StubHub because it has been a successful fit for the company. "Frankly, eBay might be looking at acquiring more businesses like StubHub in other sectors because of what it has learned from it. I'd be surprised if they sold it."
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Alfred Branch should win a Pulitzer Prize for his dedication to completely objective hard-nosed journalism.
"There is no official indication that the company will sell off StubHub, which eBay bought in early 2007 for $307 million. StubHub is the nation's leading secondary ticket company, according to TicketNews's exclusive industry rankings."
Obviously a lot research and effort was put into this article.
Come on now AFL, that is a bit condescending. What indicator is better that TN's industry rankings for ticket sales?
And yes, Al Branch is a great journalist indeed.
their ranking of top websites look right on and i'm no fan of stubhub. AFL you don't know WTF you are talking about
I must be missing something because I don't see what the seller rankings have to do with AFL's comment.
Regarding his remarks though, I tend to agree with his sentiment. Often times Alfred Branch's "articles" expand and slant with a lot of opinion, though not necessarily represented that way. Sometimes feels more like "blog" than "news."
This article is a joke. eBay is selling Skype so StubHub must be next? There is only ONE source who theorized that StubHub could be something eBay might sell, and somehow that is enough speculation to merit an article? This is exactly why Ticket News should not be taken seriously as any sort of journal on the ticketing industry.
Skype was a bad purchase from the get-go. It didn't compliment any of eBay's product lines, and they had an awkward time trying to integrate it into any of their companies, and from all accounts, it was not a product that really performed for them on the earning sheets. StubHub is the opposite...while it doesn't fit seamlessly into the eBay auction line, it does compliment their ticket categories, which seem to generate quite a lot of revenue for the company. As well, thanks to their exclusive agreement with MLB, they have really turned StubHub into THE dominant secondary market player. Nothing surprises me in this market, but I would be surprised if eBay sold StubHub.
A quote from John Donahoe from a recent WSJ Article.
"In the e-commerce business, our priorities are to focus on a market where we can win – the secondary market (which includes items that are not new, in-season goods). That is simply a label on the market where we are already competing.
We will continue to look for adjacent platforms like StubHub (the ticket-sales site) that are alternative ways to connect buyers and sellers. We could make additional acquisitions that strengthen our core business or strengthen our adjacent ecommerce platform."
Why would a company as reputable and honest as Ticket Network try to stir up such nonsense in the ticket industry? I for one am shocked by their actions.