Bending Spoons agrees to acquire Eventbrite for $500 million to revive stalled brand

Vending Spoons, a company that buys and turns struggling tech companies, agreed to buy Eventbrite for about $500 million, a far cry from the $1.76 billion the company was worth when it went public in 2018.

Like many of Bending Spoons’ previous acquisitions, including Evernote, Meetup, Vimeo and AOL, Eventbrite has a strong brand, but its business has stalled, according to audited financial reports.

The event marketplace and ticketing company was co-founded in 2006 by Julia and Kevin Hertz and Renaud Visage. The former tech darling has raised about $330 million in venture capital from top investors including Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management during its 12 years as a privately held company.

Unlike traditional private equity firms, Bending Spoons acquires companies with the intention of holding them forever and aims to bring them back into the black by cutting costs, raising prices, and introducing new product features. In October, Bending Spoons announced a massive $270 million funding round that values ​​the company at $11 billion.

In addition to Bending Spoons, other investors are following a strategy of acquiring, fixing, and holding onto stalled software companies, often referred to as “venture zombie” companies. These companies include Constellation Software, Curious, Tiny, SaaS.group, Arising Ventures, and Calm Capital.

Curious founder and CEO Andrew Dumont told TechCrunch that the company buys “great companies” at low prices and turns them around quickly, achieving 20-30% profit margins.

Audited annual revenue was approximately $325 million, flat in both fiscal years 2024 and 2023. Bending Spoons agreed to pay approximately 1.7 times Eventbrite’s trailing 12-month revenue of $295 million. Despite this seemingly low earnings multiple, Eventbrite shareholders will receive $4.50 in cash per share, an 81% premium over the previous day’s closing price of $2.48.