Online ticket reseller Vivid Seats is reportedly fielding acquisition offers from several private equity firms hoping to take the company private.

The Chicago-based company, which competes with SeatGeek and StubHub, has enlisted an advisory firm to help gauge interest in a potential sale, according to Bloomberg.

The news sent Vivid Seats’ stock surging 20% on 30 December, marking its largest single-day gain since going public. The hike brought the company’s market capitalisation to USD $943 million. As of Friday (3 January), Vivid Seats’ market cap stood at $955 million.

However, the company’s shares have faced considerable pressure over the past year, declining by 40% before this recent uptick.

In the third quarter of 2024, Vivid Seats’ net income plunged 43% to $9.2 million from $16 million the prior year. Revenue inched down 1% YoY to $186.6 million from $188.1 million.

The news sent Vivid Seats’ stock surging 20% on 30 December, marking its largest single-day gain since going public

CEO Stan Chia in November said, “Demand remained robust in the third quarter, although we experienced a headwind from concert supply, including from venue and artist mix, that we believe to be temporary.”

Vivid Seats was launched in 2001 by Jerry Bednyak and Eric Vassilatos as a competitor to resale platform StubHub and later Seat Geek – both of which have been sizing up a potential initial public offering.

In 2017, private equity firm GTCR acquired a majority stake in Vivid Seats. A year later, Bednyak and Vassilatos left the company and went on to launch venture group Skybox Capital.

In 2021, the company went public via a merger with Horizon Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). That transaction valued Vivid Seats at approximately $1.95 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Vivid Seats’ current ownership includes a substantial stake held by Eldridge Industries, led by Todd Boehly, which controls roughly 41% of the company’s Class A shares. GTCR also maintains a minority position in the business.

IQ has reached out to Vivid Seats for comment.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is urging Congress to investigate “deceptive” ticketing practices after discovering thousands of fake tickets already listed for resale for Oasis’ 2025 North American tour.

NIVA says that 9,000 speculative and, in many cases, non-existent tickets for the band’s US and Canada concerts appeared on secondary platforms at prices far above face value ahead of yesterday’s (3 October) presale and today’s general sale.

It is now calling on the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on predatory ticket practices – including the sale of speculative tickets – upon Congress’ return from recess in November.

“We are sharing examples of speculative and fake tickets from the Oasis shows with Congress because these are among the highest-profile sales that get the public’s and Congress’ attention,” says NIVA executive director Stephen Parker in a letter to Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation chair Maria Cantwell and US senator Ted Cruz.

“The scourge of fake tickets for these shows and so many other lower profile shows deceives consumers and may even lead them to buy flights, hotels, dinners, and more that they can’t recover if they don’t receive the ticket they have purchased or if the ticket they receive does not work.

“The prices for these fake tickets are likely exceedingly higher than the face value of the tickets. We can’t determine the exact markup on the fake tickets given that there are no tickets available for the public to buy, let alone see the price. These price gouged tickets will leave fans with less money to spend on other shows and less money for the food, drink, and merchandise that generate critical revenue for the local communities where these shows happen.”

“We found a significant number of listings with no warning or messages that the tickets were not in the possession of the seller”

The US trade association claims that approximately 4,354 fake tickets for three Oasis shows were listed on StubHub as of the evening of 2 October, with around 3,450 fake tickets listed on Vivid Seats.

“We found a significant number of listings with no warning or messages that the tickets were not in the possession of the seller, including the most expensive tickets across all three nights,” continues Parker. “Even more egregious is messaging on Vivid Seats sharing misinformation with fans that only ‘1% of tickets [are] left’ when again, the official ticket sale has not yet begun.”

IQ has approached StubHub and Vivid Seats for comment.

NIVA, which represents more than 2,000 independent concert venues and related music businesses, is also pressing lawmakers to advance the Fans First Act as part of a comprehensive year-end legislative package to reform ticketing practices in the territory.

Introduced by senators last December, the Fans First Act is designed to help increase transparency in ticket sales, protect customers “from fake or dramatically overpriced tickets,” and hold “bad actors who engage in illegal ticket sale practices” to account.

“What is happening this week with Oasis tickets in the US is alarming, but it pales in comparison to what artists and independent stages see every day”

“What is happening this week with Oasis tickets in the US is alarming, but it pales in comparison to what artists and independent stages see every day from predatory resellers,” adds Parker. “This letter is a defence of consumers and artists everywhere.”

Earlier this week, Oasis announced outdoor shows in the US, Canada and Mexico for next summer – their first gigs in North America since 2008 – supported by special guests Cage The Elephant.

The reunited group went on to confirm four additional shows as part of the tour leg, which is produced by Live Nation and SJM, due to “phenomenal demand”. They will now play Toronto’s new Rogers Stadium (24-25 August), Chicago’s Soldier Field (28 August), MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (31 August & 1 September), Los Angeles’ Rose Bowl (6-7 September) and GNP Seguros Stadium (12-13 September).

Fans who have purchased tickets and can no longer attend the shows are urged to resell their tickets via the North American tour’s official resale platform Twickets or Ticketmaster Fan-to-Fan in the US and Canada.

Meanwhile, RTE has reported details of almost 100 complaints made to Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) over the handling of the 31 August on-sale for the band’s Dublin concerts, which is being investigated by the watchdog.

The UK & Ireland sale was marred by a controversy over dynamic pricing that has sparked multiple inquiries. A statement from Oasis’ management confirmed the model will not be employed for the US, Canada and Mexico shows.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Ticket touts hatched secret plans to sabotage Labour’s bid to cap ticket resale if the party wins the next UK general election, according to a new report.

Footage filmed by the Guardian shows touts and representatives of secondary ticketing platforms such as Viagogo, StubHub and Vivid Seats discussing the proposals at a private event in London, organised by US-based lobby group the Coalition for Ticket Fairness (CTF) and sponsored by Swiss marketplace Gigsberg. Guests paid $240 (€222) each to be in attendance.

At the gathering, touts reportedly pledged £73,000 to hire a “bulletproof” political lobbyist to target MPs after CTF UK president Tony McGowen told guests they could help “guide parliament and to fight back against all the bullshit that a Labour government potentially want to throw at us”.

“We are going to fight parliament, we’re going to fight government,”  he said, “because if we don’t, bottom line is we are all fucked.”

Jason Berger of CTF US added: “It takes a long time to change a law. It’s a lot easier to … stop the law from being written.”

“A Labour government will cap resale prices so fans can see the acts that they love at a fair price”

The event took place in the wake of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s recent vow to restrict the resale of tickets at more than a small, set percentage above face value should his party triumph at July’s general election.

The proposed legislation would also limit the number of tickets individual resellers can list and make platforms accountable for the accuracy of information about tickets they list. In addition, it would ensure watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has the powers to take action against platforms and touts to protect consumers.

“We can’t let access to culture be at the mercy of ticket touts who drive up the prices,” Sir Keir told the Labour Creatives Conference in March. “So a Labour government will cap resale prices so fans can see the acts that they love at a fair price.”

The lobbyist whom the CTF said it had selected told the Guardian they had met with the group over a year ago but would never agree to work for it.

In a statement to the newspaper, the CTF said it was “not currently engaged in any lobbying activities in the UK” and has “no timeline to begin doing so”.

“CTF believes that measures to restrict access to ticketing will create a black market with more transactions driven underground”

“We have not engaged professional support in the manner described and we have no agreement to do so,” it continued. “Like any industry preparing for a potential change in a regulatory environment, we are taking preparatory action which includes bringing the industry together to share insights.

“CTF believes that measures to restrict access to ticketing will create a black market with more transactions driven underground, removing customer security; reduce the availability of tickets to fans; and create further monopolies for vested interests which will see prices driven up for fans.”

A Viagogo spokesperson told the Guardian that two of its executives attended the event for “networking reasons” and said the Swiss-headquartered firm was not funding the CTF. StubHub International and Vivid Seats did not comment, but the latter company is expected to launch in the UK shortly, having incorporated back in March.

A 2022 investigation by ITV News, based on research carried out by campaign group FanFair Alliance (FFA), found that three people were responsible for over two-thirds of UK festival and outdoor event tickets listed by resale platform Viagogo.

Rules to outlaw ticket touting have been adopted in a number of other countries. However, the Conservative government recently rejected fresh legislation that would impact the UK secondary ticketing market. The amendments to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill called for requirements to be imposed on resale platforms regarding “proof of purchase, ticket number limits and the provision of information, with the aim of reducing fraud”.

“I have quite happily used Viagogo on many occasions, as other people have when reselling tickets”

Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “We believe those provisions are already there,” and admitted to using Viagogo himself in the past.

“I have quite happily used Viagogo on many occasions, as other people have when reselling tickets,” said the Conservative MP. “Of course we will keep looking at the primary and secondary markets, and at the interaction between the two, so that we can develop the right way to regulate the market, in a future parliament.”

The suggested requirements for resale sites were in line with the recommendations made in a 2021 report by the CMA to tighten laws around online ticket touting, which were rejected by the UK government in May last year, with then business secretary Hollinrake saying he was “not convinced” by the need for additional legislative changes.

Earlier this month meanwhile, four people were jailed for using fraudulent tactics to purchase and resell hundreds of tickets at hugely inflated prices for events and concerts such as Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga. The defendants ran multi-million-pound limited company TQ Tickets, which they used to purchase hundreds of tickets for events and concerts by the likes of Gary Barlow, Liam Gallagher, Paul Weller and Little Mix.

The trial heard the firm sold tickets worth more than £6.5 million (€7.6m) over the course of two-and-a-half years.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

The United States House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday (21 November) opened an investigation into what it deems the “potentially unfair and deceptive practices” of the primary and secondary ticketing market.

Members of the Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to Live Nation/Ticketmaster, AEG, StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketNetwork and Tickets.com, requesting information pertaining to the companies’ ticketing policies.

“The Committee, which has broad jurisdiction over consumer protection issues, is concerned about potentially unfair and deceptive practices occurring in the primary and secondary ticket marketplace, many of which have been documented in consumer complaints, press stories, and government reports,” write committee leaders.

In particular, representatives express concern over “high, hidden fees”; a “lack of transparency” surrounding ticket availability; the presence of speculative tickets – or those not yet in the possession of the seller – on secondary sites; the use of “deceptive” practices by white-label websites; and “limiting” restrictions on the transferability of tickets.

“This information will help demonstrate why we must pass my Boss Act to finally put into law hard regulation of the marketplace”

The Energy and Commerce Committee has previously taken action “to protect consumers”, such as banning tickets bots, or the use of software to bulk-buy tickets. In June, the Congress reintroduced the pro-transparency Boss Act (Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing), following a workshop by the Federal Trade Commission into online ticket sales.

The act’s provisions include forcing primary sellers to disclose how many tickets will be offered for sale and make clear any fees up front, as well as prohibiting promoters and ticketing companies from restricting where buyers can resell their tickets.

Congressman Bill Pascrell, the principle sponsor of the act, comments that there is currently a “glaring lack of regulation” in the US ticketing marketplace.

“That one of Congress’s most powerful committees is investigating the worst anticompetitive and anti-consumer behaviour in the marketplace is a watershed moment,” continues Pascrell. “This information will help demonstrate why we must pass my Boss Act to finally put into law hard regulation of the marketplace.”

The ticketing companies have until Thursday 12 December to respond to the Energy and Commerce Committee’s request for information.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Chicago-based secondary ticketing company Vivid Seats is among parties interested in acquiring StubHub from e-commerce giant Ebay, Bloomberg reports.

In July, IQ reported that Ebay was moving forward with the potential sale of StubHub, which it bought for US$310 million in 2007, with “multiple” parties showing interest.

The e-commerce platform announced a review of the secondary site’s “role and value”, after reportedly receiving pressure from investor Elliott Management to separate from the ticketer.

Now, it has been revealed “by people familiar with the matter”, that fellow secondary site, Vivid Seats, is among those in the running to buy StubHub, for what is believed to be as much as $3 billion. Buyout firm KKR & Co has also reportedly shown interest.

Backed by private equity firms GTCR and Vista Equity Partners, Vivid Seats recently made its first acquisition, buying ticket distributor Fanxchange, in a deal worth $65m. Vista is believed to value the company at around $1.5bn.

According to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2018, StubHub and Vivid Seats are among the United States’ four biggest secondary market players, along with Ticketmaster and SeatGeek. All four also operate in the primary sector.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Major US secondary ticketing platform Vivid Seats has made its first acquisition: Toronto-based Fanxchange, which offers white-label ticketing solutions for ecommerce sites, banks, travel agencies, loyalty programmes and more.

The acquisition, for “up to” C$85 million (US$65m), will further Chicago-based Vivid Seats’ “position as one of the most trusted, authoritative and comprehensive ticket marketplaces in North America”, according to a statement from the company.

“Vivid Seats is constantly exploring new ways to deliver more of the unparallelled joy of live events that has fuelled our success to date,” says Stan Chia, Vivid Seats’ CEO, who joined from Grubhub last October. “With Fanxchange, their focus on servicing the live event ticketing needs of distribution partners is an important complement to the consumer marketplace that we’ve built to date.

“We are thrilled to add their talented team and robust B2B platform, ultimately connecting more fans, sellers and partners with superior technology and the best marketplace experience.”

“With access to Vivid Seats’ infrastructure, resources and scale, we can rapidly accelerate our growth in enterprise and distribution”

Founded in 2009 by Brandon Koffler and Shawn Brookes, Fanxchange operates its own consumer-facing ticket resale platform, in addition to its core distributed-commerce business. The latter allows consumers to purchase tickets directly from the content they are reading online without needing to go to another page or website – for example, providing ticket sales links to people booking a weekend away on a travel site, for shows on those dates. (Or, in US corporate lingo, “streamlin[ing] the way consumers shop for live events by surfacing tickets across multiple distribution verticals where consumers are already engaging in content and commerce”).

Fanxchange becomes part of Vivid Seats, with Koffler and Brookes leading the company as Vivid’s B2B arm from Toronto.

“Since 2009, we have focused on building a company and platform driven by innovation,” says Fanxchange CEO Koffler. “With access to Vivid Seats’ infrastructure, resources and scale, we can rapidly accelerate our growth in enterprise and distribution. We’re very excited about this opportunity.”

Vivid Seats is backed by private-equity firms Vista Equity Partners and GTCR, the latter of which acquired a significant stake in May 2017. Vista is believed to value the company at around US$1.5 billion.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free digest of essential live music industry news, via email or Messenger.

Data presented by online statistics portal, Statista, has shown that women generated the majority of traffic to ticketing sites on the first day of ticket sales for a variety of high-profile world tours.

Female fans drove around 73% of traffic to Vivid Seats on the morning that tickets went on sale for K-pop group BTS’ first world stadium tour, Love Yourself: Speak Yourself.

The band sold out five major stadiums across the United States and Europe, including the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles (90,888-cap.), London’s Wembley Stadium (90,000-cap.) and the Stade de France in Paris (80,000-cap.).

Women generated an even higher percentage of traffic for Ariana Grande’s Sweetener world tour (75%), which sees the star perform across Europe and North America.

Female fans also drove more traffic to ticketing pages for Ed Sheeran’s ÷ world tour (64%), Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour and Drake’s Aubrey and the 3 Migos tour.

Only for the Rolling Stones No Filter tour did men have a bigger presence on the ticketing site than women, driving 56% of the traffic.

The data corresponds with information collected by event discovery guide and ticketing outlet, Skiddle, that shows women now buy 13% more live event tickets than men.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free digest of essential live music industry news, via email or Messenger.

US secondary ticketing platform Vivid Seats has hired Stan Chia as CEO.

Chia was formerly COO of online food ordering service Grubhub, and has previously held senior roles at Amazon, Cisco and General Electric. He will take over daily operations at Vivid Seats – the largest independent ticket resale service North America, and a competitor to the likes of Ticketmaster Resale/TicketsNow and eBay-owned StubHub – from co-founders Eric Vassilatos and Jerry Bednyak, who remain co-chairmen of the company’s board.

“Stan’s experience driving incremental growth, strategic partnership development and innovative operations makes him an ideal fit to further advance Vivid Seats and the ticket purchasing experience,” says Bednyak, who with Vassilatos founded Chicago-based Vivid Seats as a start-up in 2001. “I am confident that he’ll take the company to the next phase of its corporate evolution and look forward to working with him.”

“I want to thank the founders and Vivid Seats’ shareholders for the opportunity to lead such an exceptional company of great people during a time of growth and innovation in the marketplace,” adds Chia (pictured). “I’ve always had a passion for live events and technology, and I am excited to work with the Vivid Seats team to provide consumers the best experience in online ticketing.”

Vivid Seats is backed by private-equity firms Vista Equity Partners and GTCR, the latter of which acquired a significant stake last May.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

With new global restrictions now live on the use of Google AdWords by secondary ticketing sites, UK anti-touting campaign group FanFair Alliance has “unequivocally welcomed” the update to Google’s ad policies – but warned there is still room for improvement if the search giant is serious about cracking down on dishonest ticket resellers.

As required by Google’s new ‘event ticket reseller policy’, all major online secondary outlets – including Get Me In! and Seatwave in the UK, Ticketmaster Resale in Australia, SeekGeek, TicketsNow and Vivid Seats in the US and StubHub and Viagogo internationally – have put up notices making clear they are resale sites, and that prices may be above face value.

However, the same wording isn’t included in the ads themselves, meaning a Google search, for example, for “Kendrick Lamar tickets” still brings up scores of resale sites as the top results, with no indication they are not the primary sellers.

In a statement, FanFair identifies this lack of consistency as the “one crucial area” where more needs to be done, saying that while it welcomes Google’s “proactive involvement to bring further transparency to the ticket resale market”, the “largest resale sites still fail to make clear that they are secondary platforms, listing secondhand tickets.

“Given their continued prominence on search pages, the implication remains that these are authorised primary sellers or ‘official sites’. That is simply not the case. Until their ad messaging is amended, we suspect UK ticket buyers will continue to be misled.

“Until ad messaging is amended, we suspect ticket buyers will continue to be misled”

“This is something we look forward to discussing with Google and will urge them to act upon. Unless secondary ticketing sites are forced to ‘be honest’, the full consumer benefits of certification are unlikely to be achieved.”

Elsewhere in the UK industry, Mark Gasson, founder of primary ticket agency Gigantic, urges Google to go on step further in totally excluding secondary sellers from its search results. “While we welcome these changes that help to protect customers from being deceived when searching for tickets online, we would like to see this as the beginning rather than the end in the attempt to safeguard online ticketing,” he tells IQ. “In time, we would want to see all secondary sites excluded from all ticket searches and be restricted to pure secondary tickets searches.

“As it stands, some customers will still not see past the warnings and will end up paying more than they need to for their tickets. This not only misleads customers but also impacts on their potential spend on other concerts.”

“Google’s moves to ban misleading adverts from the secondary sites on its search engines is a welcome move, and a step in the right direction which should stop a lot of people being ripped off,” adds Dan Ealam, director of promoter DHP Family.

“Having seen firsthand the pain these unethical sites can cause consumers through false claims of being official, financial heartache for music fans and sometimes even selling non-existent tickets, we feel there is still some distance left to go, but this is a good starting point from Google.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Chicago-based private-equity firm GTCR today announced it is to make a “strategic investment” in secondary ticketing site Vivid Seats.

Vivid, also based in Chicago, was reported in March to be seeking a buyer for its ticket resale business, believed to be the third largest in the US after Ticketmaster and StubHub.

GTCR, whose other tech investments include include software developer Cision, billboard ad company Fairway Outdoor Advertising, broadcast advertising platform GTN and driver-safety business Lytx, says its cash will help to “grow and develop the company’s technology and service offerings” – although existing investor Vista Equity Partners will maintain a “significant ownership stake”.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Vista is believed to value Vivid Seats at around US$1.5 billion.

“GTCR brings significant resources and experience in building industry leading companies, and we believe they will be a valuable resource in the long-term expansion of our business”

“The Vivid Seats team has built a tremendous business that is well-positioned for long-term success,” comments GTCR managing director David Donnini. “The impressive growth over the last decade is a testament to their customer service, operating excellence and proprietary technology platform.”

In a joint statement, Vivid co-founders Jerry Bednyak and Eric Vassilatos add: “We are excited to partner with GTCR in the next stage of Vivid Seats’ evolution. GTCR brings significant resources and experience in building industry leading companies, and we believe they will be a valuable resource in the long-term expansion of our business.

“We would also like to thank Vista for their support and look forward to their continued partnership.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.