Vivid Seats is officially a public-traded company as of Tuesday morning, having closed its merger with Horizon Acquisition Corporation on Monday as planned. Vivid begins trading on the NASDAQ under the SEAT (Class A) and SEATW (Warrant) ticker symbols.
“Today marks a major milestone for our company, our employees and our shareholders,” said Stan Chia, Chief Executive Officer of Vivid Seats in a press release announcing the closing of the deal. “Now as a public company, we remain focused on continuing to deliver exceptional value to our loyal customers and drive growth as we strive to be the leading online ticketing marketplace.”
News of the merger that would bring Vivid public broke in the spring as Horizon, led by hedge fund billionaire Todd Boehly and already trading under the HZAC ticker, entered talks to merge with the ticket marketplace in a process that would bring it public. Boehly, who is a co-owner of the LA Dodgers and LA Lakers as well as recently being named CEO of the Golden Globes, has cited Vivid Seats as a company he believes will continue to grow as the live events industry continues to rebound following the lengthy shutdown of in-person event attendance due to COVID.
“We are excited to see this merger successfully realized and congratulate Vivid Seats on this milestone,” he says. “We look forward to collaborating with Vivid Seats as they continue to build their growing and highly profitable marketplace backed by an impressive technology platform and extraordinary customer base.”
Horizon shareholders voted to approve the transaction last week, setting in motion the final steps of the process of the deal closing.
As of Tuesday morning’s market opening, SEAT is trading at $12.57.
Just last week, SeatGeek joined Vivid Seats as ticket marketplaces making moves to being public traded companies. SeatGeek has entered into discussions with RedBall Acquisition Corp – a SPAC similar to Horizon that is led by Oakland Athletics executive Billy Beane and sponsored by RedBird Capital Partners – to bring that marketplace public at some point in 2022.
The full press release announcing the deal is available below:
Vivid Seats and Horizon Acquisition Corporation Announce Closing of Business Combination
CHICAGO, IL – October 18, 2021 – Vivid Seats Inc. (“Vivid Seats” or the “Company”), a leading marketplace that utilizes its technology platform to connect millions of buyers with thousands of ticket sellers across hundreds of thousands of events each year, and Horizon Acquisition Corporation (“Horizon”), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today the completion of their business combination (the “Business Combination”). The Business Combination was approved by a majority of Horizon stockholders at a special meeting held on October 14, 2021. Horizon has merged with and into Vivid Seats, with Vivid Seats as the surviving corporation. Beginning on October 19, 2021, Vivid Seats’ common stock and warrants are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (“NASDAQ”) under the ticker symbol “SEAT” and “SEATW”, respectively.
“Today marks a major milestone for our company, our employees and our shareholders,” said Stan Chia, Chief Executive Officer of Vivid Seats. “Now as a public company, we remain focused on continuing to deliver exceptional value to our loyal customers and drive growth as we strive to be the leading online ticketing marketplace.”
Vivid Seats brings to NASDAQ a streamlined and high-growth business with a successful and scalable marketplace serving the concert, sports and theater markets. The Company’s marketplace supports over 12 million customers and 3,400 sellers transacting across more than 200,000 listed events.
Todd L. Boehly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Acquisition Corporation, commented, “We are excited to see this merger successfully realized and congratulate Vivid Seats on this milestone. We look forward to collaborating with Vivid Seats as they continue to build their growing and highly profitable marketplace backed by an impressive technology platform and extraordinary customer base.”
