In a move that the company said allows it to improve its relationship with large-volume ticket sellers, StubHub announced today that it bought ticket broker software company Ticket Technology for an undisclosed price.
Spearheaded by former National Association of Ticket Brokers President Russ Lindmark, Ticket Technology has more than 150 clients, and its software is used by some of the secondary ticket market’s larger companies, including Lindmark’s other company Ticket Solutions; Boston’s Ace Ticket; and Texas-based Golden Tickets.
“The acquisition of Ticket Technology will enable StubHub to provide point-of-sale services that will streamline the listing process for our large seller customers and help ensure StubHub inventory is refreshed in real time with the market,” StubHub President Chris Tsakalakis said in a statement. “With the valuable software developed by Ticket Technology we can help ensure StubHub continues to be the number one destination to buy and sell tickets.”
In addition, the deal ups the ante in the secondary ticket market because it potentially opens up another avenue of competition, sales platforms. StubHub will now join industry leaders TicketNetwork, parent company of TicketNews, and Ticketmaster Entertainment’s TicketsNow in offering brokers point-of-sale platforms.
“This acquisition, and the competition in general, signals that all the major players intend to invest in seller systems and compete for the brokers’ business, which is great for brokers,” said Mike Janes, CEO and co-founder of ticket search company FanSnap. “More importantly, it is great for fans because better systems will directly lead to better service.”
Not everyone was sold on the acquisition, however. Though Ticket Technology has been around for at least a decade, the company had not gained enough traction to call itself the dominant player in the market, despite having large clients behind it.
“I think it’s great for Ticket Technology, but I don’t see what StubHub gains from them,” said one broker and large-volume StubHub reseller. “It’s certainly not market share because Ticket Technology’s client base is so small.”
Though not directly addressing that question, Golden Tickets President Steve Parry, Board Chairman of Ticket Technology, said in a statement that Ticket Technology’s software will help StubHub grow even more.
“Ticket Technology will bring key technology and services to the most popular destination for people to sell tickets on the Internet,” Parry said. “The Ticket Technology team is excited to partner with StubHub in developing best in class software tools to further enable ticket selling.”
