StubHub IPO Fizzles: Stock Closes Down 6.4% on First Day of Trading

StubHub's initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange underperformed on Wednesday, September 17, with shares closing at $22.00—a 6.4% drop from the IPO price of $23.50. Despite an early rally that pushed the stock up 19% to $27.89, it later retreated, leaving the secondary ticketing giant with a market capitalization of approximately $7.55 billion. The offering raised around $800 million, which the company intends to use partly to reduce its long-term debt, which totaled $2.38 billion as of the end of June.

According to SEC filings, CEO and co-founder Eric Baker retains significant control following the public listing. He owns 4.2% of Class A shares and 24.75 million supervoting Class B shares, giving him 88.3% of total voting power. In 2024, Baker received a $2.5 million base salary, a matching bonus, stock awards worth nearly $62 million, and additional benefits including childcare and private school tuition. The IPO, first filed in March of this year, had been under consideration since 2022. Although the blockbuster success of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour boosted revenue, volatile market conditions led the company to postpone its planned 2023 listing.

One of the world’s largest ticket resale platforms, StubHub reported a 29% revenue increase to $1.77 billion in 2024, though it posted a slight net loss of $2.8 million compared to a $405 million profit the previous year. For the first half of 2025, revenue rose 3% to $827.9 million, but net loss expanded to $76 million, partly due to an $85.2 million foreign exchange loss. The company also slightly reduced its workforce, reporting 895 full-time employees as of August 2025, down from 918 earlier in the year.

Looking ahead, StubHub anticipates a roughly 5% contraction in the secondary ticket market for 2025, citing the conclusion of Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour in late 2024 and the introduction of all-in pricing rules in the U.S. this past May. As one industry expert observed, “The end of a major tour often leads to a temporary cooling in the resale market, though demand typically rebounds with the announcement of new stadium events.” In 2024, the platform enabled the sale of more than 40 million tickets globally from over one million sellers.

Major stakeholders following the IPO include investment firms Madrone Partners (22.1% of Class A shares), WestCap (11.1%), Bessemer Venture Partners (7.9%), and PointState Capital (5.3%). StubHub’s corporate history has been marked by significant transitions: co-founded by Baker in 2000, it was acquired by eBay in 2007 for $310 million. Baker later launched European reseller Viagogo, which repurchased StubHub from eBay for $4.05 billion in 2020. The merged entity rebranded as StubHub Holdings in September 2021, strengthening its position in the competitive global ticket marketplace.