Eventbrite Sold for $500M as Bending Spoons Takes Over Troubled Ticketing Platform
Eventbrite – once one of Silicon Valley’s most promising consumer tech platforms – is being acquired by Italy’s Bending Spoons in a deal valued at roughly $500 million. The move marks a dramatic turning point for the ticketing company, which went public in 2018 at a valuation near $1.8 billion.
Eventbrite Sold for $500M ad Bending Spoons Takes Over Troubled Ticketing Platform
A Steep Decline From IPO Heights
The sale price underscores just how far Eventbrite has fallen in recent years. Even before the pandemic kneecapped the global events industry, the company faced slowing growth, heavy competition, and rising customer acquisition costs. COVID-19 accelerated those challenges, and while live events returned strongly, Eventbrite never fully bounced back.
By 2024 the company reported $325.1 million in revenue but still posted a $15.6 million net loss, a signal that its recovery path remained uneven. Its workforce — about 748 employees at the end of 2024 — also underwent multiple restructurings aimed at stabilizing the business. For a company once seen as an essential tool for indie promoters, grassroots creators, and mid-sized venues, the market headwinds proved hard to overcome.
Why Bending Spoons Wants Eventbrite
For Bending Spoons, Eventbrite is the latest addition to a portfolio built around revitalizing well-known but underperforming tech brands. The Italian firm has recently acquired Evernote, Vimeo’s core assets, WeTransfer, and even AOL, positioning itself as a buyer of distressed legacy digital platforms.
According to the companies, Bending Spoons plans to:
- Build new messaging and communication tools directly into Eventbrite
- Improve event discovery and search functionality
- Add AI-driven tools for event creation and marketing
- Expand capabilities around ticket resale and secondary-market logistics
If the acquisition closes as expected in the first half of 2026, Eventbrite will be taken private. Shareholders will receive $4.50 per share, an 82% premium over the company’s recent trading price — though still far below its IPO value.
What It Means for Artists, Promoters, and Venues
For the live-music and events ecosystem, this acquisition reflects a broader reckoning: even established platforms must evolve quickly or risk being overtaken by more specialized or more nimble competitors.
Ticketing could look very different by the end of 2026.
The the resale market is under increased scrutiny and with regulation likely to follow. Then there’s the giant in the room. Ticketmaster heads to court in March to fight a DOJ lead breakup with Live Nation.
Going private could free Eventbrite from quarterly earnings pressure, giving Bending Spoons space to rebuild the platform without public-market scrutiny. If rather than cut costs as the firm has done with other acquisitions, it truly reinvests, Eventbrite could reemerge as a competitor in the crowded ticketing space.
Bruce Houghton is Founder & Editor of Hypebot, Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of Skyline Artists.
