{"id":77169,"date":"2025-12-02T23:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/?p=77169"},"modified":"2025-12-02T23:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:20:08","slug":"bending-spoons-agrees-to-buy-eventbrite-for-500m-to-revive-stalled-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/bending-spoons-agrees-to-buy-eventbrite-for-500m-to-revive-stalled-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Bending Spoons agrees to buy Eventbrite for $500M to revive stalled brand"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bending Spoons, a company that buys and revitalizes stagnating tech companies, has agreed to purchase Eventbrite for about $500 million, a far cry from the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/eventbrite-valued-at-1-76-billion-in-ipo-1537443074\" target=\"_blank\">$1.76 billion<\/a> the company was worth when it went public in 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just like many of Bending Spoons\u2019 previous acquisitions, including Evernote, Meetup, Vimeo, and AOL, Eventbrite has a strong brand, but the company\u2019s business has stopped growing, according to audited financials. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The events marketplace and ticketing company was co-founded in 2006 by the husband-and-wife team, Julia and Kevin Hartz, and Renaud Visage. During its 12 years as a private business, the one-time tech darling raised <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/07\/21\/eventbrite-is-reportedly-going-public-in-the-second-half-of-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approximately $330 million<\/a> in venture capital from top investors such as Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike traditional private equity firms, Bending Spoons buys companies that it intends to hold forever, aiming to turn them profitable by cutting costs, raising prices, and introducing new product features. In October, Bending Spoons announced a massive $270 million funding round that valued the company at <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/10\/31\/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$11 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Besides Bending Spoons, other investors follow the strategy of acquiring, fixing, and holding stalled software firms, often referred to as <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/11\/25\/why-hold-forever-investors-are-snapping-up-venture-capital-zombies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cventure zombie\u201d<\/a> companies. These firms include Constellation Software, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.curiousholdings.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Curious<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/url.usb.m.mimecastprotect.com\/s\/ZLRLCzq8n8Hwl0OycKsOC9mENB?domain=tiny.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Tiny<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/url.usb.m.mimecastprotect.com\/s\/P_YLCKAo6ofMgjZYckS6C5Qqog?domain=saas.group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SaaS.group<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/url.usb.m.mimecastprotect.com\/s\/sFSTCA8LmLhlyvGPsQtyCGW8vh?domain=arisingventures.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Arising Ventures<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/url.usb.m.mimecastprotect.com\/s\/qTZzCB1MnMHRQgzks1u9C2N0yT?domain=calmcapital.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Calm Capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Andrew Dumont, the founder and CEO of Curious, told TechCrunch that the firm buys \u201cgreat companies\u201d at low prices and quickly revives them to achieve <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/11\/25\/why-hold-forever-investors-are-snapping-up-venture-capital-zombies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">20% to 30% profit margins<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Audited annual revenue was flat at about $325 million for both fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2023. Bending Spoons has agreed to pay approximately 1.7 times Eventbrite\u2019s trailing twelve months revenue of $295 million. Despite this seemingly low revenue multiple, Eventbrite stockholders will receive $4.50 in cash per share, an 81% premium over the previous day\u2019s $2.48 closing price.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-techcrunch-inline-cta\">\n<div class=\"inline-cta__wrapper\">\n<p>Techcrunch event<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-cta__content\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__location\">San Francisco<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__separator\">|<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__date\">October 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Published by Dralys Blog \u2013 Stories | Insights | Innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Discover more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dralysstore.com\" target=\"_blank\">DralysStore.com<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pld-like-dislike-wrap pld-template-2\">\r\n    <div class=\"pld-like-wrap  pld-common-wrap\">\r\n    <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\" class=\"pld-like-trigger pld-like-dislike-trigger  \" title=\"\" data-post-id=\"77169\" data-trigger-type=\"like\" data-restriction=\"no\" data-already-liked=\"0\">\r\n                        <i class=\"fas fa-heart\"><\/i>\r\n                <\/a>\r\n    <span class=\"pld-like-count-wrap pld-count-wrap\">    <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bending Spoons, a company that buys and revitalizes stagnating tech companies, has agreed to purchase&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":77170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[74,34,65,176,45,177,10],"class_list":["post-77169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dralys-insights","tag-dralys","tag-e-commerce","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ecosystem","tag-innovation","tag-smart-shopping","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/eventbrite-crowd.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77171,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77169\/revisions\/77171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}