Secondary ticketing company Viagogo has announced an agreement to purchase its rival ticketing firm StubHub for $4 billion.
According to Viagogo, purchasing StubHub from eBay, which bought the company for $310 million in 2007, will give more choices for its customers. If completed, the deal would reunite Viagogo chief executive officer (CEO) Eric Baker with StubHub, which he co-founded prior to the eBay sale.
The acquisition comes at the heels of the decision of Great Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to suspend legal action against Viagogo after it made changes to its operations. In September, the CMA said the amendments made by Viagogo in presenting information to customers meant the website was now "worlds apart" from the one that prompted the legal action.
The CMA had previously asked operators like Viagogo to improve the information they provided about tickets, such as the risk a buyer would be turned away at the door, which ticket they were getting, and the availability and popularity of tickets. The then Digital Minister Margot James  said in May 2018 that if fans had to use a secondary site to buy tickets, "don't choose Viagogo - they are the worst".
Viagogo and StubHub comes together
According to Baker, it had long been his wish for the two companies to merge. He said: "I am so proud of how StubHub has grown over the years and excited about the possibilities for our shared futures. Buyers will have a wider choice of tickets, and sellers will have a wider network of buyers. Bringing these two companies together creates a win-win for fans - more choice and better pricing."
StubHub has a larger market in the US while Viagogo is more popular in the UK and other parts of the world. Cris Miller, Viagogo's managing director, called the two companies "pretty perfect complementary businesses."
