As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 21, 2025.

Registration No. 333-   

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

STUBHUB HOLDINGS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware		7990		20-2082924
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

175 Greenwich Street, 59^th Floor

New York, New York 10007

(888) 977-5364

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

 

 

Eric H. Baker

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

StubHub Holdings, Inc.

175 Greenwich Street, 59^th Floor

New York, New York 10007

(888) 977-5364

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

 

 

Copies to:

 

Michael Benjamin Tad J. Freese Alison A. Haggerty Adam J. Gelardi Latham & Watkins LLP 1271 Avenue of the Americas New York, New York 10020 (212) 906-1200		Connie James Chief Financial Officer Mark Streams General Counsel StubHub Holdings, Inc. 175 Greenwich Street, 59th Floor New York, New York 10007 (888) 977-5364		Dave Peinsipp Kristin VanderPas Denny Won Cooley LLP 3 Embarcadero Center, 20th Floor San Francisco, California 94111 (415) 693-2000

 

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this registration statement is declared effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer		☐		Accelerated filer		☐
Non-accelerated filer		☒		Smaller reporting company		☐
				Emerging growth company		☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

 

 

The Registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

		Page
ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS			ii
GLOSSARY			ii
PROSPECTUS SUMMARY			1
RISK FACTORS			24
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS			67
MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA			69
USE OF PROCEEDS			71
DIVIDEND POLICY			72
CAPITALIZATION			73
DILUTION			76
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS			79
LETTER FROM ERIC BAKER, OUR FOUNDER AND CEO			117
BUSINESS			118
MANAGEMENT			143
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION			151
CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS			173
PRINCIPAL STOCKHOLDERS			176
DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK			180
SHARES ELIGIBLE FOR FUTURE SALE			192
MATERIAL U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSEQUENCES TO NON-U.S. HOLDERS			194
UNDERWRITING (CONFLICTS OF INTEREST)			198
LEGAL MATTERS			211
EXPERTS			211
WHERE YOU CAN FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION			211
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS			F-1

 

 

You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus or contained in any free writing prospectus filed with the SEC. Neither we nor any of the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus we have prepared or that have been prepared on our behalf or to which we have referred you. Neither we nor any of the underwriters take responsibility for, and can provide assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters are offering to sell and seeking offers to buy shares of our Class A common stock but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus is current only as of its date, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may have changed since such date.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit the use or possession or distribution of this prospectus or any related free writing prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of our Class A common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside the United States.

 

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

We were incorporated as Pugnacious Endeavors, Inc. in the State of Delaware on December 17, 2004 and launched operations as viagogo in 2006. On February 13, 2020, we acquired the StubHub business (“StubHub”) from eBay Inc. (“eBay”) (the “StubHub Acquisition”), and on September 8, 2021, we changed our name to StubHub Holdings, Inc. (“StubHub Holdings”). StubHub is currently operated through our wholly owned subsidiary StubHub, Inc., and today, StubHub Holdings is the combination of the viagogo and StubHub businesses.

Certain amounts, percentages and other figures presented in this prospectus have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, figures shown as totals, dollars or percentage amounts of changes may not represent the arithmetic summation or calculation of the figures that precede them.

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company,” “StubHub Holdings,” and similar terms refer to StubHub Holdings, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, including without limitation, StubHub, Inc.

GLOSSARY

In this prospectus, unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, we use the following terms to describe attributes of our business:

Ecosystem Participants

 

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“Buyer” refers to a fan that has bought a ticket to a live event on our marketplace in a given period.

 

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“Fan” refers to an individual that attends a live event or visits our global ticketing marketplace. A fan can be a buyer or a seller.

 

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“Seller” refers to an individual or business that has listed one or more tickets on our marketplace in a given period. We categorize sellers into three groups: the individual seller, the professional seller and the content rights holder.

 

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“Individual seller” refers to an individual that is reselling tickets previously purchased or gifted to them, and often include season ticket holders or individuals whose plans have changed.

 

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“Professional seller” refers to an individual or business that acquires tickets with an intent to distribute on ticketing marketplaces. Professional sellers often work directly with content rights holders to broaden distribution and may buy tickets wholesale or manage tickets on a consigned basis.

 

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“Content rights holder” or “CRH” refers to a content owner, such as a performer, artist or team, that sells original issuance tickets, for example, the Rolling Stones and New York Yankees.

Ticketing Business Models

 

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“Original issuance” or “original issuance ticketing” refers to the initial sale of tickets by content rights holders. These tickets can be sold through the direct issuance model, primary ticketing model or a combination.

 

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“Direct issuance” refers to a model whereby a content rights holder distributes tickets through our global ticketing marketplace. Direct issuance does not require exclusivity and can be complementary to other methods of ticket sales.

 

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“Primary ticketing” refers to a third-party model whereby a content rights holder relies on box office services to facilitate sales of original issuance tickets. Primary ticketing is often bundled with other services, including access control services to authenticate tickets and manage the venue entry process.

 

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“Secondary ticketing” refers to the subsequent resale of tickets following their original issuance by a content rights holder.

 

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“Ticketing marketplace” refers to a business model whereby ticketing inventory is sourced and priced dynamically from sellers. Ticketing inventory can be either direct issuance or secondary and includes events across a range of box office and venue affiliations.

Other Definitions

 

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“Our global ticketing marketplace” refers to the ticketing marketplace we operate through our StubHub and viagogo brands. We believe we operate the largest global secondary ticketing marketplace for live events. We believe we are the leader in the North American secondary ticketing market based on management’s analysis of our GMS (as defined below) for 2024 as compared to similar metrics of our largest competitors for 2024, such as gross ticket sales, gross transaction value and gross order value, in each case, as reported in public regulatory filings or presentations. We also believe we are the leader in the international secondary ticketing market due to the fragmented, localized and offline nature of the existing international market for secondary ticket sales.

 

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“Gross Merchandise Sales” or “GMS” represents the total dollar value paid by buyers for ticket transactions and fulfillment. GMS includes fees we charge buyers and sellers that can vary by transaction, as well as the net proceeds we remit to sellers. Our definition of GMS does not include applicable sales, value-added and other indirect taxes, shipping costs and the impact of discounts and coupons as well as event cancellations or expected cancellations after the initial transaction on our platform. We believe it is useful to exclude these items, primarily refunds due to event cancellations, as GMS is a key metric used by management to measure the business performance. We believe GMS is useful to management and investors as it serves as an important indicator of our ability to attract and satisfy buyers and sellers, the overall health of our marketplace and the scale and growth of our business. GMS is an operating metric and does not represent revenue earned by us calculated in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”).

 

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result, we will not know the final number of shares of Class A common stock to be issued in the Existing Preferred Stock Conversion, the total number of Class A common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering and the total number of Class A and Class B common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering until after this offering.

For illustrative purposes only, the table below shows the effect of the Existing Preferred Stock Conversion at the Series I Conversion Price, the Series J Conversion Price and the Series M Conversion Price and at certain other prices as set forth in the table below.

 

Series I Conversion Price / Series J Conversion Price / Series M Conversion  Price

Number of Shares of Class A Common Stock to be Issued to Holders of Series  I, Series J and Series M Preferred Stock

Total Class A Common Stock to be Outstanding Immediately After this Offering

Total Class A and Class B Common Stock to be Outstanding Immediately After this Offering

$  /$  / $

$  /$  / $

$  /$  / $

$  /$  / $

$  /$  / $

$  /$  / $

 

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, before making a decision to invest in our Class A common stock. In addition, other risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem not material may also harm our business. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be harmed. In that event, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Relating to Our Business and the Ticketing Industry

Our business depends on supply and demand for and continued occurrence of large-scale sports, concerts, theater and other live events, and any decrease in the number of such events or the willingness of consumers to attend such events could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Ticket sales are sensitive to fluctuations in the number, frequency, pricing and popularity of sports, concerts, theater and other live events and activities offered by promoters, teams and facilities. We rely on third parties to create, perform and anticipate public demand for sports, concerts, theater and other live events, and any unwillingness to tour, lack of availability of popular artists, decrease in the number of games or performances held or inability to anticipate public demand could limit our ability to generate revenue. Moreover, we are dependent on consumers’ willingness and ability to attend these events. As such, adverse trends in the sports and entertainment industries as well as consumer behavior, spending and confidence generally could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Many of the factors affecting the number and availability of sports, concerts, theater and other live events are beyond our control. For instance, certain sports leagues have experienced labor disputes leading to threatened or actual player lockouts. Any such lockouts that result in shortened or canceled seasons could adversely impact our business both due to the loss of games and ticketing opportunities as well as the possibility of decreased attendance following such a lockout due to adverse fan reaction. In addition, we have no control over the tour schedules of artists and certain international sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup, are not scheduled on an annual basis, which will affect the supply of tickets and demand for our business.

In addition, public health issues or crises (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) have and could in the future result in the widespread cancellation or lack of live entertainment events or reduction or stoppage of ticket sales if fans are unable or choose not to attend events. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations and we cannot assure you that a similar event or other adverse conditions will not occur in the future.

Moreover, general economic conditions, rates of unemployment, fuel prices, interest rates, changes in tax rates and tax laws that impact companies or individuals, inflation, consumer trends, work stoppages, public health issues, geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters or public concerns over terrorism and security incidents impact the supply and demand for and continued occurrence of large-scale sports, concerts, theater and other live events. For example, during periods of economic slowdown and recession, many consumers and corporations have historically reduced their discretionary spending, including spend on sports, concerts, theater and other live events, negatively impacting ticket sales. To the extent any of these general economic or other conditions negatively impact the supply and demand for and continued occurrence of large-scale sports, concerts, theater and other live events, it could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on our ability to attract and retain buyers and sellers, and any adverse changes in these relationships could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on obtaining and maintaining our deep and longstanding relationships with the parties that use our marketplace to buy and sell tickets, including individual fans who are ticket buyers and sellers,

 

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professional sellers and content rights holders. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain existing relationships or establish new ones by attracting new buyers and sellers to our marketplace, and the failure to do so could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In order to grow our revenue and our business, we must cost-effectively attract new buyers and sellers of all types, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders, and drive their repeat usage of our marketplace over time. Our ability to attract buyers relies predominantly on leveraging our strong global brands, our expertise in customer acquisition and creating a best-in-class experience. In order to deliver a compelling value proposition to our buyers, we need to offer a large and diverse supply of ticket inventory. Our ability to offer this supply requires us to attract and maintain a large base of sellers and help them efficiently distribute their inventory so that they continue to utilize our platform and provide us with more event and experience listings. Any adverse change in these relationships, including our inability to adapt and meet the needs of the buyers and sellers on our marketplace, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Changes in internet search engine algorithms and dynamics, or any limitation or discontinuation of support by such search engines for our paid search results, could have an adverse impact on traffic for our sites and ultimately, our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely heavily on internet search engines, such as Google, to generate traffic to our website, through a combination of organic and paid searches. Search engines frequently update and change the logic that determines the placement and display of results of a user’s search, such that the purchased or algorithmic placement of links to our website can be adversely affected. In addition, a search engine could alter its search algorithms or results causing our website to be placed lower in organic search query results. If a major search engine changes its algorithms in a manner that adversely affects the search engine ranking of our website or the websites of our partners, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be harmed. Furthermore, if we fail to successfully manage our search engine optimization, we could see a substantial decrease in traffic to our website, requiring us to increase spend to increase traffic, which could ultimately increase costs and adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, if we violate, or a search engine provider believes we have violated, the terms of service or if there is any change or deterioration in our relationship with these providers, the provider could limit or discontinue its support for our paid search results. For example, in 2019, Google temporarily suspended viagogo from its paid search results for alleged violations of Google’s advertising policy regarding clarity of ticket price, delivery and other fees in the shopping process, as well as certain claims regarding ticket validity, which resulted in a significant decline to viagogo’s GMS. If we were to experience future limitations or discontinuations, it could significantly reduce our ability to attract and retain buyers and sellers, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on third-party platforms to distribute our applications, and any change in our relationship with those platform providers could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on third-party application platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, to enable downloads of our applications and these platforms are an important distribution channel for our applications. Each platform provider has broad discretion to make changes to its operating systems and to change and interpret its terms of service and other policies, and those changes may be unfavorable to us. For example, certain competing applications may be promoted or placed in a more favorable order within the platform, which could prevent or limit the ability of potential customers from discovering our applications. In addition, changes by the platforms could limit, eliminate or otherwise interfere with our applications, our ability to distribute our applications through their stores, and our ability to update our applications, including to make bug fixes or other feature updates or upgrades. Furthermore, if these platforms choose to charge commissions on our applications and we fail to negotiate favorable terms, it may harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

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We face intense competition in the ticketing industry, and we may not be able to maintain or increase our current revenue, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business faces significant competition from other international, national, regional and local original issuance and secondary ticketing service providers, some of whom have significantly greater financial and operating resources than we do. We face competition in the secondary ticketing market from auction websites and other secondary ticketing marketplaces and from other ticket sellers with online distribution capabilities. In addition, our new direct issuance business faces significant competition from other national, regional and local original issuance ticketing service providers as well as from companies that utilize self-ticketing systems, venue box offices and season and subscription sales. Some of these competitors are more established in the original issuance ticketing marketplace and may have exclusive booking rights with certain venues or events. The original issuance market is highly fragmented. Based on publicly available data and market research, we believe that the largest player made up approximately 25% of the original issuance market in 2024, with the remaining coming from a very diverse group of national, regional and local original issuance ticketing service providers. The advent of new technology, particularly as it relates to online ticketing, has amplified this competition. The intense competition that we face in the ticketing industry could cause the volume of transactions on our marketplace to decline, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Other variables related to the competitive environment that could adversely affect our financial performance by, among other things, leading to decreases in the number of transactions on our marketplace, overall revenue and fees or profit margin include:

 

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competitors’ offerings, which may include more favorable terms or pricing or exclusivity with certain venues or events;

 

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technological changes and innovations that we are unable to adopt or are late in adopting that offer more attractive alternatives than we currently offer, which could lead to a loss of ticket sales or lower ticket fees; and

 

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ticket selection and variety that is superior compared to the selection and variety listed on our marketplace.

In the markets in which we operate, we face significant competition from other secondary as well as original issuance ticketing service providers to secure new and retain existing buyers and sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders, on a continuous basis. Competitors that have historically focused exclusively on either secondary or original issuance ticketing services have begun to move into each other’s market, resulting in an increasing number of original issuance ticketing service providers entering into the secondary ticketing market. We face significant and increasing challenges from original issuance ticketing service providers that offer tickets at a price that fluctuates based on customer demand, thereby reducing the attractiveness of the secondary market for brokers. For additional information regarding our competitive landscape, see “Business—Competition.”

If we do not continue to maintain and improve our marketplace or develop successful new solutions and enhancements or improve existing ones, our business may be adversely affected.

Our ability to attract and retain buyers and sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders, depends in large part on our ability to provide a user-friendly, secure, efficient, easy-to-use and effective marketplace, develop and improve our marketplace and introduce compelling new solutions and enhancements. Our industry is characterized by rapidly changing technology, new service and product introductions and changing demands of buyers and sellers. We spend substantial time and resources understanding such parties’ needs and responding to them. Building new solutions is costly and complex, and the timetable for commercial release is difficult to predict and may vary from our historical experience. In addition, after development, buyers and sellers may not be satisfied with our enhancements or perceive that the enhancements do not adequately meet their needs. The success of a new solution or enhancement to our marketplace can depend on

 

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several factors, including timely completion and delivery, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with our marketplace, user awareness and overall market acceptance and adoption. If we do not continue to maintain and improve our marketplace or develop successful new solutions and enhancements or improve existing ones, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be harmed.

The reputation and branding of our marketplace are important to our success, and if we are not able to maintain, enhance and differentiate our brands, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Our marketplace connects fans around the world with sellers looking to sell tickets. We operate our global ticketing marketplace through two brands: StubHub in North America and viagogo globally. We believe that maintaining and enhancing our reputation and branding as a differentiated ticketing marketplace is critical to retaining our relationship with our existing buyers and sellers and to our ability to attract new buyers and sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders. The successful promotion of our brands’ attributes will depend on a number of factors that we control and some factors outside of our control.

The promotion of our brands requires us to make substantial expenditures and management investment, which will increase as our market becomes more competitive and as we seek to expand our marketplace. To the extent these expenditures yield increased revenue, this revenue may not offset the increased expenses we incur. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brands and successfully differentiate our marketplace from competitive products and services, our business may not grow, we may not be able to compete effectively, we could lose buyers or sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders, or we could fail to attract potential new buyers and sellers, all of which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Negative perception of our marketplace may harm our business, including as a result of complaints or negative publicity about us, our inability to timely comply with local laws, regulations and/or consumer protection related guidance, the failure by sellers to fulfill orders placed on our marketplace, our responsiveness to issues or complaints and timing of refunds and/or reversal of payments on our marketplace, actual or perceived disruptions or defects in our marketplace, cybersecurity incidents, such as data breaches and compromised buyer or seller data or lack of awareness of our policies or changes to our policies that sellers, buyers or others perceive as overly restrictive, unclear or inconsistent with our values.

If we are unable to maintain a reputable marketplace that provides valuable solutions and desirable events, then our ability to attract and retain buyers and sellers could be impaired and our reputation, brands and business could be harmed.

In addition, as part of the StubHub Acquisition and the related divestiture of the StubHub international business required by competition regulators, we have agreed to certain restrictions on the use of our StubHub brand outside of the U.S. and Canada, and have granted an exclusive long-term license to use the StubHub brand to the acquirer of the StubHub international business. Such licensing agreement with the purchaser of the StubHub international business materially limits our ability to market ourselves as StubHub outside of the U.S. and Canada, and to market certain live events taking place outside of the U.S. and Canada with our StubHub brand or on StubHub branded websites and applications, which over time may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Moreover, such licensing agreement may limit our rights to use or commercially exploit aspects of our patented technology, including in our viagogo platform and our StubHub business in the U.S. and Canada. While we continue to maintain rights to the StubHub brand in the U.S. and Canada, and although we have included various contractual protections regarding the use of the StubHub brand by the acquirer, the acquirer may fail to comply with such obligations or fail to maintain or enhance our brand image internationally. See “Business—StubHub Acquisition and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority Final Report” for additional information.

 

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Our failure to successfully address the evolving market for transactions on mobile devices and to build mobile products could harm our business and prospects.

A significant and growing portion of our customers access our platform through mobile devices. The number of people who access the Internet and purchase services through mobile devices, including smartphones and handheld tablets or computers, has increased significantly in the past few years and is expected to continue to increase. If we are not able to provide customers with the experience or solutions they want on mobile devices, we may not be able to attract or retain customers or convert our website traffic into customers and our business may be harmed.

In addition, we face different fraud risks and regulatory risks from transactions sent from mobile devices than we do from personal computers. If we are unable to effectively anticipate and manage these risks, our business and prospects may be harmed.

We may not be successful in executing our business strategy to expand our reach to more categories of events and experiences.

We are focused on expanding our brands and marketplace to even more categories of events and experiences. New offerings and initiatives have a high degree of risk, as they may involve unproven businesses for us with which we have limited or no prior operating experience. For example, we have recently launched our direct issuance business. If content rights holders are not convinced of the value proposition of our marketplace, if we are unsuccessful in building and maintaining relationships with content rights holders or if we do so in a way that is not profitable or fails to compete successfully against our current or future competitors, we may be unable to realize the objectives of this business strategy or realize our anticipated value in this market. Furthermore, the adoption of our direct issuance business is subject to a number of factors, some of which may be out of our control, including the ability or willingness of content rights holders to use our platform to sell tickets, our competitors’ exclusivity rights governing ticket sales for certain events or venues or buyers’ willingness to engage with our brands and marketplace as a source for direct ticket purchases. There can be no assurance that demand for our direct issuance business or any future offerings and initiatives, including additional live event and experience categories and adjacent market opportunities across the live event ecosystem, will exist, develop or be sustained. Further, these efforts entail investments in and resources spent on our systems and infrastructure, payments platform, and increased legal and regulatory compliance expenses, which could distract management and divert capital and other resources from our more established offerings. If we are unsuccessful in executing on our business strategy to reach more categories of events and experiences, including through our direct issuance business, our business and growth prospects may be harmed.

Further, some of the categories of events and experiences we are focused on expanding into may have their own set of compliance and legal rules and regulations. There can be no assurance that we will be able to meet all compliance obligations under any applicable laws impacting these new offerings and initiatives, including obtaining any such licenses in all of the jurisdictions we plan to operate our marketplace in, and, even if we were able to do so, there could be substantial costs and potential product changes involved in complying with such laws, which may have a material and adverse effect on our business. Any noncompliance by us in relation to existing or new laws and regulations, or any alleged noncompliance, could result in reputational damage, litigation, fines, increased costs or liabilities and damages or require us to stop providing these new offerings and initiatives in certain markets. See “—Risks Related to Government Regulation and Litigation—Our failure to comply with existing laws, rules and regulations as well as changing laws, rules and regulations and other legal uncertainties, including as a result of lobbying by artists, teams and promoters, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

 

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The estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth included in this prospectus may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the markets in which we compete achieve the forecasted growth, our business may not grow at similar rates, or at all.

Market opportunity estimates and growth forecasts included in this prospectus are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates which may not prove to be accurate. The estimates and forecasts included in this prospectus relating to size, addressability and expected growth of our target market may prove to be inaccurate. In addition, a large part of our potential market opportunity involves industries that are still nascent in our business, such as our direct issuance business, and given our limited experience in these industries, it may take us longer than we expect to realize some of these market opportunities, if at all. Even if the markets in which we compete and expect to compete meet the size estimates and growth forecasts included in this prospectus, our business may not grow at similar rates, or at all. Our growth is subject to many factors, including our success in implementing our business strategy, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties.

Our recent rapid growth may not be sustainable or indicative of future growth.

We have recently experienced significant and rapid growth. Our historical rate of growth and performance may not be sustainable or indicative of our future rate of growth or performance, and in future periods, our revenue could grow more slowly than we expect or decline. We believe that continued growth in revenue and our ability to improve or maintain margins, will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to address the challenges, risks and difficulties described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully manage any such challenges or risks to our future growth. Any of these factors could cause our growth to slow or decline and may adversely affect our business and results of operations. Moreover, it may be difficult for us to accurately plan for and model future growth and performance. You should not rely on our historical rate of growth as an indication of our future performance. Failure to continue to grow our revenue or improve or maintain margins would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to maintain profitability. Moreover, we expect to recognize stock-based compensation expense of approximately $    million in connection with the completion of this offering and increased costs going forward as a public company, which our revenues may not sufficiently offset.

We had net (loss) income of $(2.8) million, $405.2 million and $(261.0) million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022. As of December 31, 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $1,504.7 million. There can be no assurance that our revenue will continue to increase or that our margins will not decline over time.

We have granted RSUs, stock options, warrants and restricted stock to our employees and certain non-employees containing service-based and performance-based conditions. During the quarter in which this offering is completed, we will begin recording stock-based compensation expense for these awards with a performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event, which will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering. If this offering had occurred on December 31, 2024, we would have recorded $1,263.4 million of cumulative stock-based compensation expense for these awards for which the service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, as applicable, were fully or partially satisfied as of that date. The total unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to these awards would be $320.8 million, which amount is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average recognition period of 1.7 years. At the time of the offering, we expect to recognize stock-based compensation expense of approximately $    million for these awards for which the service-based and performance-based vesting conditions were fully or partially satisfied as of    , 2024 and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering. For awards with vesting conditions tied to achieving certain stock price thresholds, additional expense may be accelerated upon achieving their respective thresholds in advance of their derived service period. Following this offering, our future operating expenses, particularly during the quarter in which

 

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this offering is completed, will include a substantial amount of stock-based compensation expense with respect to these awards, as well as any other equity awards we have granted and may grant in the future, which may have an adverse impact on our ability to achieve profitability in that quarter and going forward. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Stock-Based Compensation.”

In addition, part of our business strategy is to focus on our long-term growth and profitability. As a result, our profitability may be lower in the near term than it would be if our strategy were to maximize short-term profitability. Significant expenditures on sales and marketing efforts, expanding our platform, products, features and functionality and expanding our product development, each of which we intend to continue to invest in, may not ultimately grow our business or cause long-term profitability. If we are ultimately unable to achieve profitability at the level anticipated by industry or financial analysts and our stockholders, our stock price may decline.

Our efforts to grow our business may be costlier than we expect, or our revenue growth rate may be slower than we expect. We may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset the increase in operating expenses resulting from these investments. If we are unable to continue to grow our revenue, the value of our business and Class A common stock may significantly decrease.

You should not rely on the revenue growth of any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future performance. If we are unable to continue to grow revenue and manage our expenses effectively, we will not be able to maintain profitability.

Our results of operations vary from quarter to quarter and year over year, so our financial performance in certain financial quarters or years may not be indicative of, or comparable to, our financial performance in subsequent financial quarters or years.

We believe our financial results and cash needs will vary greatly from quarter to quarter and year to year depending on, among other things, the timing of and demand for certain tours, tour cancellations, event ticket sales, seasonal and other fluctuations in our results of operations, the timing of guaranteed payments, financing activities, acquisitions and investments and receivables management. For example, the timing of and demand for top sporting events and concert tours, such as the Super Bowl, the UEFA Champions League Final, the FIFA World Cup, Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour, can impact comparability of quarterly results year-over-year, and potentially annual results also. Similarly, the number of games or matches in sports playoff series, the teams involved and demand for certain games or matches can vary year-over-year and impact our results. We have in the past experienced variations in revenue based on the timing of and demand for certain experiences or events, such as major sports league seasons, the timing of certain international sporting events, tour schedules of certain artists and popular theater or concert events. Because our results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year, our financial results for one quarter or year cannot necessarily be compared to another quarter or year and may not be indicative of our future financial performance in subsequent quarters or years. Moreover, seasonality in our business could create cash flow management risks if we do not adequately anticipate and plan for periods of decreased activity, which could adversely impact our ability to execute on our strategy, which in turn could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We calculate certain business metrics using internal systems and tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We present certain business metrics herein, including GMS. We calculate these metrics using internal systems and tools that are not independently verified by any third party. These metrics may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties or other companies due to differences in sources, methodologies or

 

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the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose on an ongoing basis. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance, including double counting data such as buyers or sellers on our marketplace or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we present may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring the size of these metrics. Furthermore, because we completed the integration of the StubHub business in 2022 following the StubHub Acquisition, we have limited ability to track certain operational metrics on a combined historical basis. As a result, certain metrics may not be comparable or available at all on a historical basis. Limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which would affect our long-term strategies. If our business metrics or our estimates are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive our business metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.

Our platform is highly complex, and any undetected errors could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our platform is a complex system composed of many interoperating components and software. Our business is dependent upon our ability to prevent system interruption on our platform, to effectively implement updates to our systems and to appropriately monitor and maintain our systems. Our software, including open source software, may now or in the future contain undetected errors, bugs, vulnerabilities or backdoors. Some errors, bugs, vulnerabilities or backdoors in our software code have not been and may not be discovered until after the code has been released. Defects or errors in our system and software limitations could result in platform unavailability or system disruption or the inability of our systems to implement timely updates that are required for regulatory compliance. For example, defects or errors could result in the delay in making payments to sellers or refunds to buyers or overpaying or underpaying sellers, which would impact our cash position and may cause buyers and sellers to lose trust in our payment operations. Any errors, bugs, vulnerabilities or backdoors discovered in our code or systems released to production or found in third-party software, including open source software, that is incorporated into our code, any misconfigurations of our systems or any unintended interactions between systems could result in poor system performance, an interruption in the availability of our platform, incorrect payments, incorrect calculations, search ranking problems, buyer or seller account takeovers, fraudulent listings, issues with chatbot behavior, inadvertent failure to effectively comply with legal, tax or regulatory requirements, negative publicity, damage to our reputation, loss of existing and potential buyers and sellers, loss of revenue, liability for damages, a failure to comply with certain legal or tax reporting obligations and regulatory inquiries or other proceedings, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on the experience and expertise of our senior management team, key technical employees and other highly skilled personnel and the failure to retain, motivate or integrate any of these individuals could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our success depends upon the continued service of our senior management team and key technical employees, especially Mr. Baker, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, as well as our ability to continue to attract and retain additional highly qualified personnel. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, retain and integrate highly skilled personnel for all areas of our organization. Each of our executive officers, key technical personnel and other employees could terminate his or her relationship with us at any time. In addition, our compensation arrangements, such as our equity award programs, may not always be successful in retaining and motivating our existing employees. The loss of any member of our senior management team or key personnel might significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives and could harm our business and our relationships.

 

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We face significant competition for qualified personnel, including members of management as well as key engineering, product development, design and marketing personnel. In particular, we face significant competition for talent from other technology and high-growth companies, which include both public and privately held companies. We may not be able to hire new employees quickly enough to meet our needs. To attract top talent, we have had to offer, and believe we will need to continue to offer, competitive compensation and benefits packages. We may also need to increase our employee compensation levels in response to competition. In addition, fluctuations in the price of our Class A common stock may make it more difficult or costly to use equity compensation to motivate, incentivize and retain our employees. If we fail to effectively manage our hiring needs or successfully integrate new hires, our efficiency, ability to meet forecasts and our employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our corporate culture has contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain our corporate culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success, and our business may be harmed.

We believe that a critical component to our success has been our corporate culture. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, rapid growth and organizational change, including growth and organizational change resulting from our acquisition and subsequent integration of the StubHub business. As we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a large number of new employees and maintain what we consider to be the key aspects of our corporate culture. We have invested substantial time and resources into building our team and we will continue to require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change without undermining our corporate culture. Any failure to preserve our culture as we grow could negatively affect our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives.

Impairment of goodwill and/or intangible assets could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

In accordance with GAAP, we test goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment annually, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the assets might be impaired. If the carrying value of the reporting unit including goodwill exceeds its fair value, then the implied fair value of the reporting unit’s goodwill is calculated and an impairment loss equal to the excess is recognized. As of December 31, 2024, we had goodwill of $2,686.7 million, which constituted 53% of our total assets at that date. Impairment may result from, among other things, a significant decline in our expected cash flows, an adverse change in the business climate and slower growth rates in our industry. We cannot provide assurance that our goodwill will not be impaired in future periods. If we are required to record an impairment charge for goodwill in the future, this would adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

Exchange rates may cause fluctuations in our results of operations that are not related to our operations.

Because we operate globally, derive revenue from our international operations and have a Euro-denominated loan, we expect to incur currency translation losses or gains due to changes in the values of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar. For the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, our international operations accounted for 14%, 12% and 13% of our transaction fees, respectively. We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our financial results due to foreign currency exchange transaction risk and translation risk. For example, we recorded a foreign currency gain of $41.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, primarily caused by translation effect of the U.S. dollar on our outstanding Euro-denominated term loan, compared to a $24.7 million loss for the year ended December 31, 2023. We cannot predict the future relationship between the U.S. dollar and the currencies used by our international businesses or the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on our future results of operations.

 

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We may experience operational and financial risks in connection with acquisitions.

We may selectively seek potential acquisition targets to add complementary companies, products or technologies. The identification of suitable acquisition targets can be difficult, time-consuming and costly. We may be unable to identify suitable targets for acquisition or make acquisitions at favorable prices. If we identify a suitable acquisition candidate, our ability to successfully complete the acquisition would depend on a variety of factors, and may include our ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms and requisite government approvals. In addition, our Credit Facilities restrict our ability to make certain acquisitions. In connection with future acquisitions, we could take certain actions that could adversely affect our business, including, among other things:

 

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using a significant portion of our available cash and cash equivalents;

 

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issuing equity securities, which would dilute current stockholders’ percentage ownership;

 

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incurring substantial debt, which would further restrict our business and operations;

 

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incurring or assuming contingent liabilities, known or unknown;

 

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incurring amortization expenses related to intangibles; and

 

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incurring large accounting write-offs or impairments.

In addition, acquisitions involve inherent risks which, if realized, could adversely affect our business and results of operations, including those associated with:

 

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integrating the operations, financial reporting, technologies and personnel of acquired companies, including establishing and maintaining a system of internal controls appropriate for a public company environment;

 

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managing geographically dispersed operations;

 

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the diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;

 

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the inherent risks in entering markets or lines of business in which we have either limited or no direct experience;

 

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the potential loss of key employees, customers and strategic partners of acquired companies; and

 

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the impact of laws and regulations relating to antitrust at the state, federal and international levels, which could significantly affect our ability to complete acquisitions and expand our business.

Risks Relating to Government Regulation and Litigation

Compliance with ever-evolving federal, state and foreign laws and other requirements relating to the handling of information about individuals necessitates significant expenditure and resources, and any actual or perceived failure by us or our vendors to comply may result in significant liability, negative publicity, regulatory investigations or actions and/or an erosion of trust, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In connection with running our business, we receive, use, transmit, store and process a large volume of personal data, including from and about our buyers and sellers, as well as our employees and business contacts. We are therefore subject to numerous federal, state, and international laws, regulations, and other requirements that address privacy, data protection and security, and the collection, storing, sharing, use, disclosure, processing, and protection of personal data, including for marketing and advertising purposes. In the U.S., federal, state and local governments have enacted numerous privacy and data security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act) and other similar laws (e.g., wiretapping laws). Further, the California Consumer Privacy Act and related laws in other jurisdictions require us to, among other things: provide certain disclosures regarding our collection,

 

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use, and disclosure of personal data; receive and respond to requests from individuals to access, delete, and correct their personal data, or to opt-out of certain disclosures of their personal data; and enter into specific contractual provisions with service providers that process personal data on our behalf.

Outside the U.S., personal data and other user data is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous jurisdictions around the world, the intent of which is to protect the privacy of information that is collected, processed and transmitted in or from the governing jurisdiction. In the European Economic Area (the “EEA”) and the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”), we are subject to the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the “EU GDPR”) and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, the “U.K. GDPR”) (the EU GDPR and U.K. GDPR together referred to as the “GDPR”). The GDPR imposes a comprehensive data privacy compliance regime including: maintaining a record of data processing; providing detailed disclosures about how personal data is collected and processed (in a concise, intelligible and easily accessible form); demonstrating that appropriate legal bases are in place to justify data processing activities; complying with rights for data subjects in regard to their personal data (including data access, erasure (the right to be “forgotten”) and portability); ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place where personal data is transferred out of the EEA and the U.K.; notifying data protection regulators (and in certain cases, affected individuals) of significant data breaches; and complying with the principal of accountability and the obligation to demonstrate compliance through policies, procedures, training and audit.

In relation to cross-border transfers of personal data, we expect the existing legal complexity and uncertainty regarding international personal data transfers to continue. In particular, we expect the European Commission approval of the current EU-US Data Privacy Framework for data transfers to certified entities in the U.S. to be challenged and international transfers to the U.S. and to other jurisdictions more generally to continue to be subject to enhanced scrutiny by regulators. As the regulatory guidance and enforcement landscape in relation to data transfers continue to develop, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines; we may have to stop using certain tools and vendors and make other operational changes; we may have to implement alternative data transfer mechanisms under the GDPR and/or take additional compliance and operational measures; and/or it could otherwise affect the manner in which we provide our services, and could adversely affect our business, operations and financial condition.

We are also subject to evolving privacy laws on cookies, tracking technologies and e-marketing in the European Union (the “E.U.”) and the U.K. Recent European court and regulator decisions are driving increased attention to cookies and tracking technologies. If the trend of increasing enforcement by regulators of the strict approach to opt-in consent for all but essential use cases, as seen in recent guidance and decisions continues, this could lead to substantial costs, require significant systems changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, divert the attention of our technology personnel, adversely affect our margins and subject us to additional liabilities. In light of the complex and evolving nature of E.U., E.U. Member State and U.K. privacy laws on cookies and tracking technologies, there can be no assurances that we will be successful in our efforts to comply with such laws, and violations of such laws could result in regulatory investigations, fines, orders to cease/change our use of such technologies, as well as civil claims including class actions and reputational damage. Other jurisdictions besides the U.S., U.K. and EEA also have laws governing data privacy and security or are considering the adoption of new laws.

On November 16, 2022, the Digital Services Act (the “DSA”) came into force in the E.U. Most of the substantive provisions of the DSA took effect on February 17, 2024, however, market practice in relation to compliance and approaches to enforcement are still developing. The DSA places a number of obligations on us regarding among other things, addressing illegal services, products, and content on our platform, ensuring the traceability of business users (including by obtaining, assessing and retaining certain information about them), and implementing enhanced transparency measures (including in relation to any recommendation systems we utilize, such as requirements to disclose the main parameters used by such systems and any available options for service recipients to modify or influence them). Further, the DSA contains general requirements that user interfaces may not deceive or manipulate users.

 

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In addition to the DSA, on October 26, 2023 the Online Safety Act (the “OSA”) received assent in the U.K. The OSA will place a range of obligations on us regarding the services, products and content available on our platform and the users we engage with. We will be required to undertake various compliance steps – in addition to those in relation to the DSA – in order to comply with the requirements of the OSA, many of which are yet to be fully clarified in the form of anticipated Codes of Practice. While the timetable for implementation of the OSA is unclear, it is expected to be imminent in 2024.

We are also subject to the Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) Data Security Standard, which is a standard designed to protect credit card account data as mandated by payment card industry entities. See “—Risks Relating to Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property—Our payments system depends on a number of third-party providers and is subject to risks that may harm our business” for more information. We rely on vendors to handle a significant portion of PCI matters applicable to our business and to help ensure PCI compliance. Despite our compliance efforts, we may become subject to claims that we have violated the PCI Data Security Standard based on past, present and future business practices. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with the PCI Data Security Standard can subject us to fines, termination of banking relationships and increased transaction fees.

The requirements of these laws and industry standards, and their application and interpretation, are constantly evolving and developing, creating a complex compliance environment. The interpretation and application of many privacy and data protection laws are, and will likely remain, uncertain, and it is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or product features. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with these laws could result in fines, lawsuits and other claims and penalties, and we could also be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our products, which could harm our business. In addition to government regulation, privacy advocacy and industry groups may propose new and different self-regulatory standards that either legally or contractually apply to us. Any inability to adequately address privacy, data protection, and data security concerns or to comply with applicable privacy, data protection or data security laws, regulations, policies and other obligations could result in proceedings, actions, orders to cease/change our data processing activities, enforcement actions, assessment notices (for a compulsory audit), civil claims (including class actions) and, in certain jurisdictions, criminal liability against us, additional cost and liability to us, damage to our reputation, and harm to our sales and our business, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We also depend on a number of third parties in relation to the operation of our business, a number of which process personal data on our behalf. There can be no assurances that any privacy- and security-related measures and safeguards we have put in place in relation to these third parties will be effective to protect us and/or the relevant personal data from the risks associated with the third-party processing, storage and transmission of such data. Our failure, and/or the failure by the various third-party service providers and partners with which we do business, to comply with applicable privacy policies or federal, state or similar international laws and regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or information security, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release of personal data or other user data, or the perception that any such failure or compromise has occurred, could result in additional litigation and potential liability, adversely harm our brands and reputation, result in a loss of buyers or sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders, and discourage potential buyers or sellers from trying our marketplace, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If our use of artificial intelligence results in inaccurate data, regulatory scrutiny, privacy concerns or is otherwise unsuccessful, it could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We have made investments in artificial intelligence (“AI”) initiatives. We rely on AI, machine learning (“ML”), data analytics and similar tools (“AI Tools”) to analyze market trends, improve our services, and tailor our interactions with our customers. We primarily use third-party AI Tools that StubHub has licensed or otherwise obtained a right to use from the applicable third-party provider. As with many technological

 

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innovations, there are significant risks involved in developing, maintaining and utilizing AI Tools and no assurance can be provided that our use of AI Tools will enhance our products or services or continue to be successful. If the models underlying our AI Tools are inadequately or incorrectly designed, improperly trained or used, or the data used to train them is incomplete, inadequate or biased in some way, our use of AI Tools may inadvertently reduce our efficiency or cause unintentional or unexpected outputs that are incorrect, insufficient, do not comply with our policies or standards, adversely affect our financial condition, business and reputation. Further, if we are deemed to not have sufficient rights to use such data to train our AI Tools, then we may be subject to litigation by the owners of the content or other materials that comprise such data, similar to the litigation that is currently pending in various U.S. courts against other developers of AI Tools, and in which the outcome of such litigation is still uncertain.

Several jurisdictions around the globe, including Europe and certain U.S. states, have proposed enacted, or are considering laws governing the development and use of AI/ML, such as the EU’s AI Act. We expect other jurisdictions will adopt similar laws. Additionally, certain privacy laws extend rights to consumers (such as the right to delete certain personal data) and regulate automated decision making, which may be incompatible with our use of AI/ML. These obligations may make it harder for us to conduct our business using AI/ML, lead to regulatory fines or penalties, require us to change our business practices, or prevent or limit our use of AI/ML. For example, the FTC has required other companies to turn over (or disgorge) valuable insights or trainings generated through the use of AI/ML where they allege the company has violated privacy and consumer protection laws. If we cannot use AI/ML or that use is restricted, our business may be less efficient, or we may be at a competitive disadvantage.

The market for AI Tools is complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition from other companies as well as an evolving regulatory landscape. To the extent AI development and utilization from our industry competitors prove to be successful, or more successful, than our approach, the demand for our services could be adversely affected. Our efforts to continuously improve our AI Tools, including the introduction of new products or capabilities or changes to existing products or capabilities, may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, privacy or ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results.

The rapid evolution of AI will require the application of resources to develop, test, maintain and improve our products and services to help ensure that the AI is accurate and efficient. The continuous development, testing, maintenance and deployment of our AI Tools may also increase the cost profile of our offerings due to the nature of the computing costs involved in such systems, and may involve unforeseen difficulties including material performance problems, undetected defects or errors. We may encounter technical obstacles, and it is possible that we may discover additional problems that may prevent our proprietary AI Tools from operating properly, which could adversely affect our business, customer relationships and reputation.

Our failure to comply with existing laws, rules and regulations as well as changing laws, rules and regulations and other legal uncertainties, including as a result of lobbying by artists, teams and promoters, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to a wide variety of statutes, rules, regulations, policies and procedures in various jurisdictions in the U.S. and abroad relating to the ticketing marketplace, which are subject to change at any time, and which in some cases regulate the amount of transaction and other fees that may be charged in connection with the ticket prices and for secondary ticketing services. New legislation of this nature is introduced from time to time in various (and is pending in certain) jurisdictions in which we operate. For example, several U.S. states and cities, Canadian provinces, the U.K. and certain European countries prohibit the resale of tickets at prices greater than the original face price (in the case of certain jurisdictions, without the consent of the venue) and/or prohibit the resale of tickets to certain types of events. Furthermore, as we expand into the direct issuance market through our direct issuance platform, we may be subject to new laws, rules and regulations. Moreover, under the EU Regulation on platform-to-business relations and the UK Platform to Business Regulation (together, the “P2B

 

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Regs”), we are subject to a number of transparency, operational and related requirements in relation to business users on our marketplace (for example, regarding transparency in terms of ranking parameters, the process for suspending, terminating or restricting user accounts, and the resolution of disputes with users). Complying with this new set of regulations could result in increased costs and additional liabilities. Additionally, artists, teams and promoters may attempt to disrupt the secondary ticketing market through lobbying for such restrictions regarding secondary ticketing policies or partnering with other secondary ticketing marketplaces on an exclusive basis. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could result in fines and/or proceedings against us by governmental agencies and/or consumers, which, if material, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the promulgation of new laws, rules and regulations that restrict or otherwise unfavorably impact the ability or manner in which we participate in the ticketing marketplace industry would require us to change certain aspects of our business, operations and buyer and seller relationships to ensure compliance, which could decrease demand for services, reduce revenue, increase costs and/or subject us to additional liabilities or limit or inhibit our ability to operate, or our users’ ability to continue to use, our platform. For example, New York amended its Arts and Cultural Affairs Law to require additional disclosures by ticket marketplaces and restricted a ticket marketplace’s ability to charge fees for the e-delivery of tickets.

We operate in international markets and are subject to risks associated with the legislative, judicial, accounting, regulatory, political and economic conditions specific to such markets, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We provide services in various jurisdictions abroad through a number of brands and businesses that we own and operate, and we expect to continue to expand our international presence. We face, and expect to continue to face, additional risks in the case of our existing and future international operations, including:

 

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political instability, adverse changes in diplomatic relations and unfavorable economic and business conditions in the markets in which we currently have international operations or into which we may expand, particularly in the case of emerging markets;

 

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more restrictive or otherwise unfavorable government regulation of the secondary ticketing industry or the ticket industry at large, which could result in increased compliance costs and/or otherwise restrict the manner in which we provide services and the amount of related fees charged for such services;

 

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complying with different (and sometimes conflicting) laws and regulatory standards related to payment processing and money transmission;

 

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limitations on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, including limitations and challenges with enforcing online “clickwrap” agreements, across multiple jurisdictions;

 

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limitations on the ability of foreign subsidiaries to repatriate profits or otherwise remit earnings;

 

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adverse tax consequences due both to the complexity of operating across multiple tax regimes as well as changes in, or new interpretations of, international tax treaties and structures;

 

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expropriations of property and risks of renegotiation or modification of existing agreements with governmental authorities;

 

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diminished ability to legally enforce our contractual rights in foreign countries;

 

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limitations on technology infrastructure, which could limit our ability to migrate international operations to a common ticketing system;

 

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lower levels of internet usage, credit card usage and consumer spending in comparison to those in the U.S.; and

 

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difficulties in managing operations and adapting to consumer desires due to distance, language and cultural differences, including issues associated with (i) business practices and customs that are common in certain foreign countries but might be prohibited by U.S. law and our internal policies and

 

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procedures, and (ii) management and operational systems and infrastructures, including internal financial control and reporting systems and functions, staffing and managing of foreign operations, which we might not be able to do effectively or cost-efficiently.

As we expand into new markets, these risks will be intensified and will have the potential to impact a greater percentage of our operations. While our ability to expand our international operations into new jurisdictions or further into existing jurisdictions will depend on limitations by federal, state and local statutes, rules, regulations, policies and procedures, such expansions will also depend in significant part, on our ability to identify potential acquisition candidates, joint venture or other partners, and enter into arrangements with these parties on favorable terms, as well as our ability to make continued investments to maintain and grow existing international operations. If the revenue generated by international operations is insufficient to offset expenses incurred in connection with the maintenance and growth of these operations, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, in an effort to make international operations in one or more given jurisdictions profitable over the long term, significant additional investments that are not profitable over the short term could be required over a prolonged period.

In foreign countries in which we operate, a risk exists that our employees, contractors or agents could, in contravention of our policies, engage in business practices prohibited by applicable U.S. laws and regulations, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as well as the laws and regulations of other countries prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials such as the U.K. Bribery Act 2010. We maintain policies prohibiting such business practices and have in place global anti-corruption compliance and training programs designed to ensure compliance with these laws and regulations. Nevertheless, the risk remains that one or more of our employees, contractors or agents, including those based in or from countries where practices that violate such U.S. laws and regulations or the laws and regulations of other countries may be customary, as well as those associated with newly acquired businesses, will engage in business practices that are prohibited by our policies, circumvent our compliance programs and, by doing so, violate such laws and regulations. Any such violations, even if prohibited by our internal policies, could result in fines, criminal sanctions against us and/or our employees, prohibitions on the conduct of our business and damage to our reputation, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business also must be conducted in compliance with applicable economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations, such as those administered and enforced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the United Nations Security Council and other relevant trade sanctions authorities, which prohibit or restrict transactions involving certain designated persons and certain designated countries or territories, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, and the Crimea Region of Ukraine. Our global operations expose us to the risk of violating, or being accused of violating, economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations. Our failure to successfully comply with these laws and regulations may expose us to reputational harm as well as significant penalties, including criminal fines, imprisonment, civil fines, disgorgement of profits, injunctions, as well as other remedial measures. Investigations of alleged violations can be expensive and disruptive. While we have implemented and continue to implement compliance measures and controls, including geoblocking and other restricted party screening measures as well as policies and procedures to promote and achieve compliance with economic and trade sanctions laws, we may have been in the past and could in the future be, in violation of such laws particularly as the scope of such laws may be unclear and subject to changing interpretations. Despite our compliance efforts and activities, we cannot assure compliance by our employees or representatives for which we may be held responsible, and any such violation could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our platform might be used for illegal or improper purposes, all of which could expose us to additional liability, damage our brands and reputation, and harm our business.

Our platform remains susceptible to potentially illegal or improper uses by creators or attendees. Illegal or improper uses of our platform may include money laundering, terrorist financing, drug trafficking, illegal online

 

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gaming, other online scams, illegal sexually oriented services, phishing and identity theft, prohibited sales of pharmaceuticals, fraudulent sale of goods or services, posting of unauthorized intellectual property, unauthorized uses of credit and debit cards or bank accounts and similar misconduct. Creators may also encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activities. Despite measures we have taken to detect and lessen the risk of this kind of conduct, we cannot guarantee that these measures will stop all illegal or improper uses of our platform and such uses have occurred in the past. Our business could be harmed if creators use our system for illegal or improper purposes, which may expose us to liability as well as damage our brands and reputation, resulting in harm to our results of operations and future prospects. At the same time, if the measures we have taken to guard against these activities are too restrictive and inadvertently screen proper transactions, or if we are unable to apply and communicate these measures fairly and transparently, or if we are perceived to have failed to do so, this could diminish the experience of creators and attendees, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

We are subject to extensive governmental regulations, including with respect to privacy laws and protection of personal data or sensitive information as well as consumer protection laws applicable to our sales and marketing activities, and our failure to comply with these regulations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our operations are subject to federal, state and local statutes, rules, regulations, policies and procedures, both domestically and internationally, which are subject to change at any time, governing matters such as:

 

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privacy laws and protection of personal data or sensitive information, as more particularly described above under the risk factor related to our processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal data or sensitive information;

 

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consumer protection;

 

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original issuance and secondary ticketing services;

 

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intellectual property ownership and infringement;

 

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enforceability of online “clickwrap” agreements across jurisdictions;

 

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compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and similar regulations in other countries, and compliance with trade compliance and economic sanctions laws and regulations of the U.S. and applicable international jurisdictions as more particularly described above under the risk factor related to our international operations;

 

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human health, safety and sanitation requirements;

 

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working conditions, labor, minimum wage and hour, citizenship and employment laws;

 

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sales and other taxes and withholding of taxes;

 

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regulations on unfair competition;

 

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billing and e-commerce;

 

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telecommunication, digital content, mobile communications and media;

 

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advertising and promotions;

 

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payment processing and money transmission;

 

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money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities; and

 

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marketing activities via the telephone and online.

Our failure or allegations that we failed to comply with these laws and regulations could result in investigations, proceedings, injunctive relief, fines or penalties against us by governmental agencies and private actions brought by consumers, which if material, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and

 

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results of operations. While we attempt to conduct our business and operations in a manner that we believe to be in compliance with such laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that a law or regulation will not be interpreted or enforced in a manner contrary to our current understanding of the law or regulation. In addition, the promulgation of new laws, rules and regulations could restrict or unfavorably impact our business, which could decrease demand for services, reduce revenue, increase costs and/or subject us to additional liabilities. New legislation could be passed that may adversely impact our business, such as provisions that have recently been proposed in various jurisdictions that would restrict ticketing methods, require the disclosure of the identity of buyers and sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders on our marketplace, and attack current policies governing season tickets for sports teams. Additionally, governmental regulations, such as the economic and trade sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and European regulators, as well as U.S. and foreign export control and import laws and regulations, could restrict or limit our business activities in certain areas, prohibit us from transacting or dealing with certain restricted or sanctioned parties or subject us to sanction for non-compliance, even if inadvertent.

From time to time, international, federal, state and local authorities and/or consumers have commenced investigations, inquiries or litigation with respect to our compliance with applicable consumer protection, advertising, unfair business practice, antitrust (and similar or related laws) and other laws. Our businesses have historically cooperated with authorities in connection with these investigations and have satisfactorily resolved, or are in the process of resolving, material investigation, inquiry or litigation. Such regulatory proceedings may result in fines or changes to our business practices. For example, federal and state regulators in the U.S. commenced investigations into the StubHub business related to changes that the business made to refund and cancellation policies in March 2020 when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in widespread event cancellations and postponements. In response to these investigations, we provided information and documents related to our COVID-19 refund policies and practices. In September 2021, the StubHub business agreed to publicly filed settlements with various U.S. state attorneys general to resolve their investigations, which included injunctive terms applicable to the StubHub business and cash refunds that StubHub already, voluntarily offered to certain U.S. consumers, among other things. We continue to have discussions with certain regulatory agencies in the U.S. related to our COVID-19 refund policies and practices and may agree to future resolutions with such agencies.

In the case of antitrust (and similar or related) matters, any adverse outcome could limit or prevent us from engaging in the ticketing business generally (or in a particular segment thereof) or subject us to potential damage assessments, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, in connection with the StubHub Acquisition in February 2020, the U.K. CMA undertook an investigation of the transaction and concluded that the combination of StubHub and viagogo had resulted, or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within the supply of uncapped secondary ticketing platform services for the resale of tickets to U.K. events. The U.K. CMA ultimately required us to undertake a divestiture of the international operations of the StubHub business. The final undertakings in connection with the StubHub Acquisition and the final report from the U.K. CMA relating to the divestiture of the StubHub international business were implemented in September 2021 and we were able to begin the integration. A year later, in September 2022, we completed the integration. In connection with the approval of the StubHub Acquisition and closing of its investigation, the U.K. CMA accepted the final undertakings in connection with the divestiture, which provided certain measures for implementing the divestiture. The post-closing obligations imposed on us by the final undertakings include, among other things: (i) that we refrain from using the StubHub brand (including in advertisement text or in links to websites) to target customers (using geographic targeting mechanisms available on the search engine advertising platforms) based in North America seeking U.K. live events using paid search advertising (including Google and other search engines) for a period of five years from the closing of the divestiture on September 3, 2021 (the “Divestiture Closing Date”); (ii) that we refrain from relisting the original StubHub mobile app on the Apple and Google app stores outside of North America for a period of 10 years from the Divestiture Closing Date; (iii) that we implement a mechanism to redirect buyers or sellers of tickets to U.K. live events from our website to the website of the purchaser of the StubHub

 

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international business for a period of five years from the Divestiture Closing Date; (iv) that we refrain from listing any tickets to U.K. live events on the StubHub North America domains for a period of five years from the Divestiture Closing Date; (v) that we implement a mechanism to redirect all buyers or sellers who appear to be located in the U.K. based on location settings of the customer’s device from the original StubHub mobile app to the mobile app of the purchaser of the StubHub international business for a period of five years from the Divestiture Closing Date and (vi) that we refrain from displaying any inventory for U.K. live events on the original StubHub mobile app for a period of five years from the Divestiture Closing Date. In addition, the post-closing obligations require us to appoint a monitoring trustee, subject to approval by the U.K. CMA, to oversee the website and mobile redirection mechanisms, at our cost, and to provide any access or information that the monitoring trustee may require for the duration of the redirection mechanisms. See “Business—StubHub Acquisition and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority Final Report” for additional information.

Failure to comply with applicable anti-money laundering and money transmission laws and regulations could harm our business and results of operations.

Due to the risk of our platform being used for illegal or illicit activity, any perceived or actual breach of compliance by us with respect to anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws, rules and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act, USA Patriot Act and Title 18 U.S.C. Sections 1956-57 and 1960, could have a significant impact on our reputation and could cause us to lose existing buyers and sellers, prevent us from obtaining new buyers and sellers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy civil and criminal problems caused by violations and to avert further violations and expose us to legal risk and potential liability that could have a material effect on our business. Several of these laws require certain companies to adopt an AML compliance program, including those companies that are characterized as a federal money services business or state money transmitter. Moreover, many states have their own AML and money transmitter regulatory regimes and interpretations and applications of those legal principles are complex and varied. If the federal government or any state government took the position that we were a money services business or money transmitter, they could require us to register as such and obtain money transmitter licenses. Furthermore, should a federal or state regulator make a determination that we have operated as an unlicensed money services business or money transmitter, we could be subject to civil and criminal fines, penalties, costs, legal fees, reputational damage or other negative consequences, all of which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

There are various risks associated with the facilitation of payments from customers, including risks related to fraud, compliance with existing and evolving rules and regulations, and reliance on third parties and any failure to comply with laws and regulations related to payments, fraud or failure of a third party to perform could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We rely upon third-party service providers to provide key components of our platform on our behalf, including payments processing and disbursement, compliance, identity verification, sanctions screening and fraud analysis. Our utilization of such payment processing tools may be impacted by factors outside of our control, including disruptions in the payment processing industry generally. If these service providers do not perform adequately, or if our relationships with these service providers were to change or terminate, it could negatively affect our sellers’ ability to receive payments, our buyers’ ability to complete purchases, and our ability to operate our platform, including maintaining certain compliance measures such as fraud prevention and detection tools. This could decrease revenue, increase costs, lead to potential legal liability and negatively impact our brands and business. In addition, if these providers increase the fees they charge us, our operating expenses could increase. Alternatively, if we respond by increasing the fees we charge to our sellers, some sellers may stop using our platform, stop listing their tickets for sale or even close their accounts altogether.

Moreover, if we or any of our third-party payment processors experience a security breach affecting payment card information, we could be subjected to fines, penalties and assessments arising out of state and federal regulatory enforcement, liability to consumers, the major card brands’ rules and regulations, contractual indemnification obligations or other obligations contained in user agreements and similar contracts, and we may lose our ability to accept card payments for our services and for ticket sales.

 

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We have implemented internal controls related to managing customer funds. Any failure or insufficiency of such controls or failure to implement sufficient controls as our business grows or product offerings change could result in reputational harm, lead customers to discontinue or reduce their use of our platform or services, and result in significant penalties and fines from regulators, each of which (as well as any control failures) could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to expand our platform into additional countries is dependent upon the third-party service providers we use to support our services. As we expand the availability of our platform to additional markets or make new payment methods available to our sellers and buyers in the future, we may become subject to additional and evolving regulations and compliance requirements, and may be exposed to heightened fraud risk, which could lead to an increase in our operating expenses. See “—Risks Relating to Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property—Our payments system depends on a number of third-party providers and is subject to risks that may harm our business.”

The laws and regulations related to payments are complex and vary across different jurisdictions in the U.S. and globally. Furthermore, changes in laws, rules and regulations have occurred and may occur in the future, which may impact our business practices. We may be required to expend considerable time and effort to determine if such laws and regulations apply to our business and may be required to spend significant time and effort to comply, and ensure we are in compliance, with those laws and regulations. Any failure or claim of our failure to comply or any failure by our third-party service providers and partners to comply with such laws and regulations or other requirements, including the payment network rules and PCI Data Security Standard, could divert substantial resources, result in liabilities or force us to stop offering our services, which will harm our business and results of operations.

There can be no assurance that we meet, or we will be able to meet, all compliance obligations under applicable law, including obtaining any such licenses in all of the jurisdictions we operate in or offer a service in, and, even if we were able to do so, there could be substantial costs and potential product changes involved in complying with such laws, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business financial condition and results of operations. Any noncompliance by us in relation to existing or new laws and regulations, or any alleged noncompliance, could result in reputational damage, litigation, penalties, fines, increased costs or liabilities, damages or require us to stop offering payment services in certain markets. For example, if we are deemed to be a money transmitter, including a money services business, provider of prepaid access, or any other similar term defined by applicable money transmission or money services business laws, we could be subject to certain laws, rules and regulations enforced by multiple authorities and governing bodies in the U.S. and numerous state and local agencies who may define money transmitter differently. For example, certain states may have a more expansive view of money transmitters. Additionally, outside of the U.S., we could be subject to additional laws, rules and regulations related to the provision of payments and financial services, and as we expand into new jurisdictions, the foreign regulations and regulators governing our business that we are subject to will expand as well. If we are found to be a money transmitter under any applicable regulation and we are not in compliance with such regulations, we may be subject to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by federal, state or local regulators, including state Attorneys General, as well as those levied by foreign regulators. In addition to fines and penalties, consequences for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include criminal and civil proceedings, forfeiture of significant assets or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. In addition, failure to predict how a U.S. law or regulation or a law or regulation from another jurisdiction in which we operate with respect to money transmission or similar requirements apply or will be applied to us could result in licensure or registration requirements, administrative enforcement actions and/or could materially interfere with our ability to offer certain payment methods or to conduct our business in particular jurisdictions. We cannot predict what actions the U.S. or other governments may take or what restrictions these governments may impose that will affect our ability to process, accept or transmit payments or to conduct our business in particular jurisdictions. Further, we may become subject to changing payment regulations and requirements that could potentially affect the compliance of our current payment processes and increase the operational costs we incur to support payments. The factors

 

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identified here could impose substantial additional costs, involve considerable delay to the development or provision of our solutions, require significant and costly operational changes, or prevent us from providing our products or solutions in any given market.

We are also subject to rules governing electronic funds transfers and payment card association rules. Any change in these rules and requirements, including as a result of a change in our designation by major payment card providers, could make it difficult or impossible for us to comply and could require a change in our business operations. In addition, similar to a potential increase in costs from third-party providers described above, any increase to fees charged or interchange assessed under, or increased costs associated with compliance with, payment card association rules or payment card provider rules could lead to increased fees and costs for us or our sellers, which may negatively impact payments on our platform and usage of our platform.

Unfavorable outcomes in legal, regulatory and business disputes and proceedings, as well as unfavorable legislation, may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our results may be affected by the outcome of pending and future governmental/regulatory investigations and litigation. Unfavorable rulings in our legal proceedings may have an adverse impact on us that may be significant depending on the nature of the rulings. In addition, we are currently, and from time to time in the future may be, subject to various other claims, investigations, legal and administrative cases and proceedings (whether civil or criminal) or lawsuits by governmental agencies or private parties. We also continue to have discussions with certain regulatory agencies in the U.S. related to our COVID-19 refund policies and business practices and may agree to future resolutions with such agencies, as further described in “Business—Legal Proceedings.” We have incurred significant legal expenses in connection with the defense of governmental/regulatory investigations and litigation in the past and may be required to incur additional expenses both now and in the future regarding such investigations and litigation. If the results of these investigations, proceedings or suits are unfavorable to us or if we are unable to successfully defend against third-party lawsuits, we may be required to pay monetary damages or may be subject to fines, penalties, injunctions or other censure, non-monetary penalties and/or potential follow-on civil claims from consumers, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if we adequately address the issues raised by an investigation or proceeding or successfully defend a third-party lawsuit or counterclaim, we may have to devote significant financial and management resources to address these issues, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition to concerns related to network and data security, the collection, transfer, use, disclosure, security and retention of personal data or sensitive information and other user data are governed by existing and evolving federal, state and international laws, as described above. We have expended significant capital and other resources to keep abreast of the evolving privacy landscape. However, due to the changes in the data privacy regulatory environment, we may incur additional costs and challenges to our business that restrict or limit our ability to collect, transfer, use, disclose, secure or retain personal data or sensitive information. These changes in data privacy laws may require us to modify our current or future services, programs, practices or policies, which may in turn impact the services available to our customers.

Additionally, some geographic markets regulate the secondary ticket market, such as by setting maximum resale prices, and any further regulation or unfavorable legislative outcomes imposing additional restrictions on ticket resales may adversely affect our industry and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be subject to taxation related risks in multiple jurisdictions, including changes in tax rates, the adoption of new U.S. or international tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities.

We are a multinational company subject to the tax laws in the U.S. and in numerous other foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. Our global provision for income taxes, deferred tax assets or liabilities and tax positions involve a significant amount of management judgment regarding interpretation of relevant facts and laws in the

 

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jurisdictions in which we operate. Changes in applicable laws, projected levels of taxable income and tax planning could change the effective tax rate and income tax balances recorded by us. In addition, tax authorities periodically review income tax returns filed by us, have in the past raised, and may in the future raise, issues regarding filing positions, timing and amount of income and deductions and the allocation of income among the jurisdictions in which we operate. We have in the past recognized, and may in the future recognize, additional tax expense and be subject to additional tax liabilities and tax collection obligations, including as a result of changes in tax law, regulations, administrative practices, principles, interpretations related to tax, changes to the global tax framework, competition and other laws and accounting rules in various jurisdictions. Such changes could come about as a result of economic, political and other conditions.

The evaluation and assessment of our tax obligations are inherently subjective due to the complexity and uncertainty of these matters and the administrative, regulatory or judicial processes in certain jurisdictions. As of December 31, 2024, we had recorded approximately $59.2 million related to uncertain tax positions, including anticipated interest and penalties. The final outcome of these tax matters could be materially different from these estimated contingencies and we may incur significant legal and other professional fees and advisory costs related to the resolution of these matters.

We may be required to collect additional sales taxes or be subject to other indirect tax liabilities in various jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

The application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use tax, value-added tax, goods and services tax, business tax and gross receipts tax, to our business is complex and an evolving issue. Many of the statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the internet and e-commerce. An increasing number of jurisdictions are considering or have adopted laws or administrative practices that impose new tax measures, including revenue-based taxes, such as digital services taxes or online sales taxes, targeting social media marketplaces and online marketplaces. We may be subject to additional tax liabilities and related interest and penalties due to changes in indirect and non-income based taxes, including sales, consumption, value-added or other taxes on online marketplaces, resulting from changes in U.S. federal, state, local or international tax laws, administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions, results of tax examinations, settlements or judicial decisions, changes in accounting principles and changes to our business operations, as well as evaluation of new information that results in a change to a tax position taken in prior periods. The interpretation and implementation of these new or revised taxes could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

For example, the U.S. Supreme Court held in South Dakota v. Wayfair that a U.S. state may require an online retailer to collect sales tax imposed by the state for online sales, even if the retailer has no physical presence in that state, thus permitting a wider enforcement of such sales tax collection requirements. A successful assertion by one or more tax authorities requiring us to collect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so or to collect additional taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently collect taxes could result in substantial additional tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest and additional administrative expenses and/or limits on the scope of our business activities if we decide not to conduct business in particular jurisdictions, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

As of December 31, 2024, we had accrued $16.3 million and $88.1 million within accrued expenses and other current liabilities and other non-current liabilities, respectively, related to contingent indirect tax liabilities, including anticipated interest and penalties for exposures related to transactions we facilitated in certain states and foreign jurisdictions subject to sales tax or foreign indirect tax. In addition, we have been audited and may in the future be audited by state and foreign tax authorities with regard to indirect taxes. We establish reserves for indirect tax litigation matters when we determine that the likelihood of a loss is probable, and the loss is reasonably estimable. As of December 31, 2024, we had accrued a liability within other non-current liabilities of $48.9 million related to a sales tax litigation matter for which a loss is probable, which represents our management’s best estimates of our potential liability and includes potential interest and penalties. Our estimated tax liabilities are inherently subjective due to the complexity and uncertainty of these matters and the

 

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administrative, regulatory or judicial processes in certain jurisdictions, therefore, the final outcome could be materially different from these estimates. We may also incur significant legal and other professional fees and advisory costs related to the resolution of these matters.

If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts and events reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant estimates and assumptions involve those related to accruals for contingent indirect tax exposures, accruals for legal contingencies, estimated future event cancellations, the valuation of deferred income tax assets and uncertain tax positions, revenue recognition and related reserves, valuation of acquired intangible assets and goodwill, impairment of long-lived assets and indefinite-lived intangible assets, including goodwill, collection rates on receivables from sellers, useful lives of intangible assets and property and equipment, the fair value of derivatives and bifurcated derivatives, the fair value of preferred stock, the fair value of common stock, inventory valuation and other assumptions used to measure stock-based compensation. Our results of operations may be materially adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.

Our ability to use our net operating losses may be limited.

Our ability to utilize our federal net operating loss carryforwards may be limited under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). These limitations apply if we experience an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in the ownership of our equity by certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply to limit the use of our state net operating loss carryforwards. In addition, there may be periods during which the use of net operating loss carryforwards is suspended or otherwise limited. Under legislation enacted in 2017 and 2020, the deductibility of federal net operating loss carryforwards generated in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, is limited to 80% of taxable income in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020. Accordingly, our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards to offset taxable income may be subject to various limitations, which could adversely affect our results of operations. We established a valuation allowance against certain of our foreign net deferred tax assets of $43.2 million and $48.9 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2024 and 2023.

Risks Relating to Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property

The success of our operations depends, in part, on the integrity of our systems and infrastructure, as well as affiliate and third-party computer systems, computer networks and other communication systems. System interruption or failure, system capacity constraints or the lack of integration and redundancy in these systems and infrastructure may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

System interruption or failure, system capacity constraints or the lack of integration and redundancy in the information systems and infrastructure, both of our own ticketing systems and other computer systems and of affiliate and third-party software, computer networks and other communications systems service providers on which we rely, may adversely affect our ability to operate websites, process and fulfill transactions, respond to customer inquiries and generally maintain cost-efficient operations. Similarly, due to our reliance on a network of technology systems, many of which are outside of our control, changes to interfaces upon which we rely or a reluctance of our counterparties to continue supporting our systems could lead to technology interruptions. Such

 

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interruptions could occur by virtue of natural disaster, malicious actions such as hacking or acts of terrorism or war or human error. In addition, the loss of some or all of certain key personnel could require us to expend additional resources to continue to maintain our software and systems and could subject us to system interruptions. The infrastructure that is required to operate our systems requires an ongoing investment of time, money and effort to maintain or refresh hardware and software and to ensure it remains at a level capable of servicing the demand and volume of business that we receive. Failure to do so may result in system instability, degradation in performance or unfixable security vulnerabilities that could adversely impact both the business and the consumers using our services. While we have backup systems for certain aspects of our operations, disaster recovery planning by its nature cannot be sufficient for all eventualities. In addition, we may not have adequate insurance coverage to compensate for losses from a major interruption. If any of these adverse events were to occur, it could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on the Google Cloud Platform to deliver our platform to our customers, and any disruption of, or interference with, our use of the Google Cloud Platform could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Google Cloud Platform (“GCP”) is a third-party provider of cloud infrastructure services. We outsource substantially all of the infrastructure relating to our cloud-native platform to GCP. For our marketplace to operate effectively, our buyers and sellers need to be able to access our platform at any time, without substantial interruption or degradation of performance. Our platform depends, in part, on the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted in GCP. Although we have disaster recovery plans, any incident affecting GCP infrastructure that may be caused by fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake or other natural disasters, power loss, telecommunications failures, cyber-attacks, terrorist or other attacks, and other similar events beyond our control, could adversely affect our cloud-native platform. Additionally, GCP may experience threats or attacks from computer malware, ransomware, viruses, social engineering (including phishing attacks), denial of service or other attacks, employee theft or misuse and general hacking have become more prevalent in our industry, particularly against cloud-native services and vendors of security solutions. Any of these security incidents could result in unauthorized access to, damage to, disablement or encryption of, use or misuse of, disclosure of, modification of, destruction of, or loss of our data or our marketplace users’ data or disrupt our ability to provide our platform or service. A prolonged service disruption affecting our marketplace for any of the foregoing reasons would adversely impact our ability to serve our marketplace and could damage our reputation with current and potential buyers and sellers, expose us to liability, result in substantial costs for remediation, cause us to lose customers, or otherwise harm our business, financial condition or results of operations. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative hosting sources or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the GCP services we use.

Our commercial agreement with Google for GCP will remain in effect until the completion of its term or if terminated by Google or us for cause upon a breach of the agreement. Termination upon a material breach is subject to providing the breaching party prior notice and a cure period. In the event that our GCP service agreements are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, elimination of GCP services or features that we utilize, or damage to such facilities, we could experience interruptions in accessing our platform as well as significant delays and additional expense in arranging for or creating new facilities or re-architecting our platform for deployment on a different cloud infrastructure service provider, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Cybersecurity risks, data loss or other security incidents could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, and the processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal data or sensitive information could give rise to liabilities and additional costs as a result of governmental regulation, contract disputes, litigation and conflicting legal requirements relating to personal privacy rights and security of sensitive information.

Due to the nature of our business, we process, store, use, transfer and disclose certain personal data about individuals or other sensitive information, including about our customers, employees and employees of third-party service providers and partners with which we do business, as well as sensitive, proprietary, and confidential

 

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information such as trade secrets. Penetration of our network, misappropriation or accidental or intentional unauthorized access to or misuse of personal data or sensitive information and data, including credit card information and other personally identifiable information, or other security incidents, could cause interruptions in our operations and subject us to increased costs, litigation, inquiries and actions from governmental authorities, customers, or business partners and financial or other liabilities. In addition, data breaches, security incidents or the inability to protect information could lead to increased incidents of ticketing fraud and counterfeit tickets. Data breaches and security incidents could also significantly damage our reputation with buyers and sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders, and other third parties and could result in significant costs related to remediation efforts, such as credit or identity theft monitoring. We and certain of our third-party providers have experienced in the past, and expect to continue to experience in the future, cyberattacks and other cybersecurity or data incidents. To date, no such incident has had a material impact on our operations or financial results, however, such incidents may occur in the future, and could result in unauthorized, unlawful or inappropriate access to, inability to access, disclosure of or loss of the personal data, and sensitive, proprietary and confidential information that we handle.

Although we have developed certain systems and processes that are designed to protect information about individuals and other data, and to prevent security breaches or incidents (which could result in data loss or other harm or loss), such measures cannot provide absolute security or certainty, and there is no assurance these systems and processes will be implemented, maintained, or effective. Cybersecurity attacks are expected to increase in frequency and sophistication, and it is possible that advances in computer and hacker capabilities (including from state sponsored actors or against organizations that do business in countries who are perceived as retaliating against other countries at war), new variants of malware (including ransomware), artificial intelligence, the development of new penetration methods and tools (including phishing), inadvertent violations of company policies or procedures or other developments could result in a compromise of information of individuals or a breach of the technology and security processes that are used to protect information of individuals. The techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems may change frequently and, as a result, may be difficult for our business to detect for long periods of time. In addition, we may be unaware of or unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures.

We also face risks associated with security breaches and incidents affecting third parties with which we are affiliated or with which we otherwise conduct business. Any failure by such third parties, or any other entity in our collective supply chain, to prevent or mitigate security breaches or improper access to, or use, acquisition, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of, such information could have similar adverse consequences for us. In particular, hardware, software or applications we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture and/or may pose a security risk that could unexpectedly compromise information security. Further, supply chain breaches based on vulnerabilities in such third-party hardware, software or applications are becoming more prevalent and we could become a victim of such attacks. Buyers and sellers are generally concerned with the security and privacy of the internet, and any publicized security problems affecting our businesses and/or third parties may discourage buyers and sellers from doing business with us, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We and the third parties upon which we rely are subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to social-engineering attacks (including through deep fakes, which may be increasingly more difficult to identify as fake, and phishing attacks), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), denial-of-service attacks, credential stuffing attacks, credential harvesting, personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, telecommunications failures, earthquakes, fires, floods, attacks enhanced or facilitated by AI, and other similar threats.

Laws in all states and U.S. territories, as well as many outside the U.S. (such as the GDPR), require businesses to notify affected individuals, governmental entities and/or credit reporting agencies of certain security incidents affecting personal data. For more information, see “Risks Relating to Government Regulation

 

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and Litigation—Compliance with ever-evolving federal, state, and foreign laws and other requirements relating to the handling of information about individuals necessitates significant expenditure and resources, and any failure by us or our vendors to comply may result in significant liability, negative publicity, and/or an erosion of trust, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.” Such laws are inconsistent, and compliance in the event of a widespread security incident is complex and costly and may be difficult to implement, and failure to comply with these regulations could subject us to regulatory scrutiny and additional liability. Our existing general liability and cyber liability insurance policies may not cover, or may cover only a portion of, any potential claims related to security breaches to which we are exposed or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all or any portion of liabilities that may be imposed. We also cannot be certain that our existing insurance coverage will continue to be available on acceptable terms or in amounts sufficient to cover the potentially significant losses that may result from a security incident or breach or that the insurer will not deny coverage of any future claim.

In addition, we are subject to an increasing number of further reporting obligations in respect of certain cybersecurity incidents, including in some jurisdictions an obligation to disclose our processes for assessing, identifying and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats. These reporting requirements have been proposed or implemented by a number of regulators in different jurisdictions, may vary in their scope and application, and could contain conflicting requirements. Failure to timely report incidents under these rules could also result in monetary fines, sanctions, or subject us to other forms of liability.

If we fail to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, our competitive position and our business could be adversely affected.

Our proprietary technologies and information, including our software, informational databases and other components that make our services, are critical to our success, and we seek to protect our technologies and services through a combination of intellectual property rights, including trademarks, domain names, copyrights, trade secrets and patents, as well as through contractual restrictions with employees, customers, suppliers, affiliates and others. Despite our efforts, the steps we take to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights may be inadequate, and it may be possible for third parties to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without authorization. In addition, third parties may independently and lawfully develop services substantially similar to ours, duplicate our offerings or design around our intellectual property rights. We currently hold several patents and have been granted trademark registrations with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and/or various foreign authorities for certain of our brands. While we have been issued patents and registered trademarks in the U.S. and other foreign jurisdictions, and have additional patent and trademark applications pending, there can be no assurance that our issued patents and registered trademarks will not be limited in scope or invalidated or that our patent and trademark applications will result in issued patents and trademark registrations. Even if we continue to seek patent and trademark protection in the future, we may be unable to obtain or maintain patent protection for our technology or trademark registrations for our brands. In addition, any patents issued from pending or future patent applications or licensed to us in the future may not provide us with competitive advantages or may be successfully challenged by third parties. Any of our patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights may be challenged or circumvented by others or invalidated or held unenforceable through administrative processes, including re-examination, inter partes review, interference and derivation proceedings and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (for example, opposition proceedings), cancellation proceedings or litigation in the U.S. or in foreign jurisdictions.

Our use and registration of trademarks and domain names are subject to an exclusive license with the purchaser of certain rights, including the use of the StubHub name outside of North America, which materially limits our ability to market ourselves as StubHub outside of North America. Moreover, our ability to use certain patents and inventions is restricted by an exclusive license with the purchaser of certain rights, including the exclusive right to certain patents and inventions subsisting in the StubHub platform. The exclusive license is more particularly described above under the risk factor related to our necessary transition activities and covenants pursuant to the U.K. CMA final report and undertakings following the StubHub Acquisition.

 

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We seek to protect our trade secrets and proprietary know-how and technology methods through confidentiality agreements and other access control measures. While we generally enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with the parties with whom we share confidential information, we cannot assure you that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, or preventing unauthorized distribution, use, misuse, misappropriation, reverse engineering or disclosure of our proprietary information, know-how and trade secrets. In addition, it is possible that these agreements may not have been properly entered into on every occasion with the applicable counterparty, and if one of these agreements were found to be defective under applicable law, it may not have effectively granted ownership of certain technology or other intellectual property to us. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors or partners from independently developing offerings that are substantially equivalent or superior to ours. These agreements may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret or know-how is difficult, expensive and time-consuming and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the U.S. are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets and know-how. Failure of such strategies to protect our technology or our intellectual property in the future could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We cannot be certain that the measures we implement will prevent infringement, misappropriation or other violations of our intellectual property rights, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as they do in the U.S. Further, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are constantly developing, uncertain, and may be applied or interpreted in ways that limit our ability to protect and enforce our rights. Moreover, policing unauthorized use of our technologies, trade secrets and intellectual property may be difficult, expensive and time-consuming, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may differ or not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the U.S. and where mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be weak. Additionally, failure to comply with applicable procedural, documentary, fee payment, foreign filing license and other similar requirements with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and various similar foreign governmental agencies could result in abandonment or lapse of the affected patent, trademark or application. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights.

Moreover, a significant portion of our intellectual property has been developed by and/or acquired from third parties. While we have conducted diligence with respect to such acquisitions, we cannot guarantee that our diligence efforts identified and/or remedied all issues related to such intellectual property, including potential ownership errors, potential errors during prosecution of such intellectual property and potential encumbrances that could limit our ability to enforce such intellectual property rights.

Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights in a meaningful manner or challenges to our related contractual rights could result in erosion of our brand names or other intellectual property and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights, and some violations may be difficult or impossible to detect. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others and such litigation could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights, and, if such defenses, counterclaims and countersuits are successful, we could lose valuable intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could impair the functionality of our platform, delay introductions of enhancements to our platform, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform or harm our reputation and brands. In addition, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop and market new platform features, which may not be on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, and

 

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would adversely affect our ability to compete. Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We cannot be certain that the operation of our business does not, or will not, infringe or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of third parties. We have been subject, are currently subject, and may in the future be subject, to legal proceedings and claims alleging that we infringe or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of third parties. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize our platform and services without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. However, we may not be aware if our platform is infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating third-party intellectual property rights, and third parties may bring claims alleging such infringement, misappropriation or violation. Because patent applications can take years to issue and are often afforded confidentiality for some period of time, there may currently be pending applications, unknown to us, that later result in issued patents that could cover one or more of our products and there is also a risk that we could adopt a technology without knowledge of a pending patent application, which technology would infringe a third-party patent once that patent is issued. Companies in the software and technology industries, including some of our current and potential competitors, are frequently subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. Moreover, the law continues to evolve and be applied and interpreted by courts in novel ways that we may not be able to adequately anticipate, and such changes may subject us to additional claims and liabilities. In addition, certain companies and rights holders seek to enforce and monetize patents or other intellectual property rights they own, have purchased, or otherwise obtained. Many potential litigants, including some of our competitors, have the ability to dedicate substantial resources to assert their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. Any litigation may also involve non-practicing entities or other adverse patent owners that have no relevant solution revenue, and therefore, our patent portfolio may provide little or no deterrence as we would not be able to assert our patents against such entities or individuals. In a patent infringement claim against us, we may assert, as a defense, that we do not infringe the relevant patent claims, that the patent is invalid or both. The strength of our defenses will depend on the patents asserted, the interpretation of these patents and our ability to invalidate the asserted patents. However, we could be unsuccessful in advancing non-infringement or invalidity arguments in our defense. In the U.S., issued patents enjoy a presumption of validity, and the party challenging the validity of a patent claim must present clear and convincing evidence of invalidity, which is a high burden of proof. Conversely, the patent owner need only prove infringement by a preponderance of the evidence, which is a lower burden of proof.

We have faced legal claims and may face additional legal claims in the future from artists, teams, event organizers and promoters for trademark infringement in connection with the use of trademarks that identify ticketed events. Such trademark claims and related claims under local penal codes may result in restrictions regarding the resale of tickets, may result in orders to pay fines and damages and could adversely affect our ability to refer to events on our platform, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

With respect to any intellectual property rights claim, we may have to seek a license to continue operations found to be in violation of such rights, which may not be available on favorable or commercially reasonable terms, if at all, and may significantly increase our operating expenses. Some licenses may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. If a third party does not offer us a license to its intellectual property on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, we may be required to develop, acquire or license alternative, non-infringing technology, which could require significant time (during which we would be unable to continue to offer our affected platform features), effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Any of these events would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Intellectual property claims, whether or not successful, could divert management’s time and attention away from our business and harm our reputation and financial condition. In addition, the outcome of litigation is uncertain, and third parties asserting claims could secure a judgment awarding substantial damages, as well as injunctive or other equitable relief against us, which could require us to rebrand, redesign or reengineer our marketplace, products or services, and/or effectively block or otherwise impair our ability to effectively distribute, market or sell our services.

 

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Moreover, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our payments system depends on a number of third-party providers and is subject to risks that may harm our business.

We rely on a number of third-party providers to support our payment system, as our buyers primarily use credit, debit or payment cards to purchase tickets on our marketplace. If our third-party payment providers, any financial institution or bank that holds buyers’ or sellers’ funds or any of their respective vendors do not operate well with our marketplace, fail to perform, including bank failure, or otherwise experience fraud, our payments systems, business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected and impacted funds could be at risk. If these providers do not perform adequately, determine certain types of transactions are prohibitive for any reason or if our relationships with these providers, the banks or the payment card networks on which they rely were to terminate unexpectedly, buyers may find our marketplace more difficult to use and our payments systems, business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, such an outcome could harm the ability of sellers to use our marketplace, which could cause them to use our marketplace less and harm our business. Many of our third-party providers are able to terminate their agreements with us for convenience upon minimal notice. While we have access to alternative providers, any such termination could have a substantial adverse impact on the operation of our platform as we seek to migrate to alternative providers.

Our payment processing partners require us to comply with payment card network operating rules, which are set and interpreted by the payment card networks. The payment card networks could adopt new operating rules or interpret or re-interpret existing rules in ways that might prohibit us from providing certain services to some buyers or sellers, be costly to implement or difficult to follow. We are required to reimburse our payment processors for fines or penalties assessed by payment card networks if we, or buyers or sellers using our marketplace, violate these rules, such as our processing of various types of transactions that may be interpreted as a violation of certain payment card network operating rules. Changes to these rules and requirements, or any change in our designation by payment card networks, could require a change in our business operations and could result in limitations on or loss of our ability to accept payment cards, and expulsion from card acceptance programs, any of which could materially and adversely impact our business.

Additionally, while we deploy sophisticated technology to detect fraudulent transaction activity, we may incur losses if we fail to prevent fraudulent transactions or the use of fraudulent credit, debit or payment card information on transactions in the future. Fraud schemes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and common, and our ability to detect and combat fraudulent schemes may be adversely impacted by the adoption of new payment methods and new technology marketplaces or insufficiency or failure of internal controls. If we or our payment processing partners fail to identify fraudulent activity or are unable to effectively combat the use of fraudulent credit, debit or payment cards on our marketplace or if we otherwise experience increased levels of disputed credit, debit or payment card payments, our results of operations and financial positions could be materially adversely affected.

Finally, payment card networks and our payment processing partners could increase the fees they charge us for their services, which would increase our operating costs and reduce our margin. Any such increase in fees could also harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We currently rely on a number of third-party service providers to host and deliver a significant portion of our platform and services.

We currently rely on a number of third-party service providers to host and deliver a significant portion of our platform and services. We currently license, and may continue in future to license, software and other technology from third parties that we incorporate into or integrate with certain of our product offerings. We

 

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cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties or that our licensors have sufficient rights to the licensed intellectual property in all jurisdictions in which we may sell access to our platform. In addition, such licenses may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors could also have access to the same technology licensed to us, and other licenses may be terminated by the counterparty for convenience without significant notice to us. If we are unable to continue to license any of this technology for any reason, our ability to develop and sell access to certain product offerings containing such technology could be harmed. Similarly, if we are unable to license technology from third parties now, or in the future, that we need in order to develop certain functionality on terms reasonably acceptable to us, we may be forced to acquire or develop alternative technology, which we may be unable to do in a commercially feasible manner, or at all, and we may be required to use alternative technology of lower quality or performance standards, or take a considerable amount of time to develop ourselves, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our solutions utilize third-party open source software, which could negatively affect our ability to provide our marketplace to sellers and buyers and subject us to possible litigation, which could adversely affect our business.

Our marketplace contains software modules licensed to us by third-party authors under “open source” licenses, and we expect to continue to incorporate such open source software in our platform in the future. We also contribute to the open source developer community and encourage integration and development around our platform through our publicly available APIs. From time to time, companies that use third-party open source software have faced claims challenging the use of such open source software and compliance with the open source software license terms. We may be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or claiming non-compliance with licensing terms. Some open source software licenses require end users who distribute or make available across a network software and services that include open source software to make publicly available all or part of such software (which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code). While we employ certain informal practices designed to monitor our compliance with third-party open source software licenses and protect our valuable proprietary source code, we may inadvertently use third-party open source software in a manner that exposes us to claims of non-compliance with the terms of the applicable license, including claims of intellectual property infringement or breach of contract. The terms of various open source licenses have generally not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to market our solutions. If portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, re-engineer all or a portion of our solutions, or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our solutions, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our solutions. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the functionality or origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our platform. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Risks Relating to Our Financial Condition and Indebtedness

Our indebtedness could materially adversely affect our financial condition. Our indebtedness and liabilities could limit the cash flow available for our operations, expose us to risks that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and impair our ability to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness.

The agreements governing our Credit Facilities include restrictive covenants that, among other things, restrict our ability to:

 

•

incur additional debt;

 

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•

make certain investments and acquisitions;

 

•

repurchase our stock and prepay certain indebtedness;

 

•

create liens;

 

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enter into transactions with affiliates;

 

•

modify the nature of our business;

 

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transfer and sell material assets;

 

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merge or consolidate;

 

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pay dividends and make distributions; and

 

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make other payments in respect of our capital stock.

Our Credit Facilities include other restrictions. Our failure to comply with the terms and covenants of our indebtedness could lead to a default under the terms of the governing documents, which would entitle the lenders to accelerate the indebtedness and declare all amounts owed due and payable. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities” for additional information.

As of December 31, 2024, our total indebtedness, excluding unamortized debt issuance costs and original issue debt discounts of $53.5 million, was $2,385.0 million. We may incur significant additional indebtedness in the future.

Our substantial indebtedness could have adverse consequences, including:

 

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making it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations;

 

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increasing our vulnerability to adverse economic, regulatory and industry conditions;

 

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limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other purposes;

 

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requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to fund interest and principal payments on our debt, thereby reducing funds available for operations and other purposes;

 

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limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we operate;

 

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making us more vulnerable to increases in interest rates; and

 

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placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt.

We depend on the cash flows of our subsidiaries in order to satisfy our obligations.

We rely on distributions and loans from our subsidiaries to meet our payment requirements under our obligations. If our subsidiaries are unable to pay dividends or otherwise make payments to us, we may not be able to make debt service payments on our obligations. Subject to certain exceptions, each of our subsidiaries guarantees our indebtedness under our Credit Facilities. We conduct substantially all of our operations through our subsidiaries. Our operating cash flows and, consequently, our ability to service our debt are therefore principally dependent upon our subsidiaries’ earnings and their distributions of those earnings to us and may also be dependent upon loans or other payments of funds to us by those subsidiaries. In addition, the ability of our subsidiaries to provide funds to us may be subject to restrictions under our Credit Facilities and may be subject to the terms of such subsidiaries’ future indebtedness, as well as the availability of sufficient surplus funds under applicable law.

 

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Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our indebtedness service obligations to increase significantly.

Interest rates have fluctuated and may fluctuate in the future. Our exposure to interest rate risk is influenced primarily by changes in interest rates on interest payments related to our Credit Facilities. We had $2,385.0 million outstanding under our term loan Credit Facilities as of December 31, 2024. As interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on our variable rate indebtedness increase even though the amount borrowed remains the same, and our cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, correspondingly decrease.

The U.S. has recently experienced historically high levels of inflation. The existence of inflation in the U.S. and global economy has and may continue to result in higher interest rates. Despite our interest rate risk management strategy put in place to mitigate the effects of the current high interest rate environment, these circumstances could have other important consequences to our business, financial condition and results of operations, including, but not limited to:

 

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increasing vulnerability to, and reducing our flexibility to respond to, general adverse economic and industry conditions;

 

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limiting flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the competitive environment; and

 

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limiting our ability to borrow additional funds and increasing the cost of any such borrowing.

We use interest rate derivatives, in the form of interest rate swaps, to manage our exposure to interest rate fluctuations. These interest rate swaps had the economic effect of offsetting the variable interest obligations associated with $2,086.0 million of our outstanding long-term debt obligations as of December 31, 2024, representing most of our variable interest obligations, so that the interest payable of such obligations effectively became fixed. As a result, we have not experienced meaningful increases in our costs related to our variable interest obligations. See our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus for more information. We cannot assure you that our interest rate risk management strategy will counteract any increase. Although we believe our interest rate risk management strategy will continue to mitigate any potential material impacts on our business, financial condition and results of operations, we have the ability and may find it necessary to increase the fees charged to our platform users in order to increase our cash flows and fulfill our debt obligations if our interest rate derivatives are unable to counteract future interest rate increases, and such increase in fees could negatively impact our sales volume.

In addition, we have transitioned our Credit Facilities and fixed interest rate swap contracts to utilize the Secured Overnight Financing Right (“SOFR”) in place of the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”), which ceased publication on June 30, 2023. SOFR is intended to be a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight that is collateralized by U.S. Treasury securities. However, because SOFR is a broad U.S. Treasury repo financing rate that represents overnight secured funding transactions, it differs fundamentally from LIBOR. The change from LIBOR to SOFR could result in interest obligations that are more than or that do not otherwise correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on this debt if LIBOR were available. This may result in an increase in the cost of our borrowings under our existing variable rate indebtedness and any future borrowings and impact our ability to refinance some or all of our existing indebtedness. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk—Interest Rate Risk” for additional information.

Inflation may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Recently, inflation has increased throughout the U.S. economy. The existence of inflation in the economy has resulted in, and may continue to result in, higher interest rates and capital costs, increased costs of labor, weakening exchange rates and other similar effects. Inflation can adversely affect us by affecting our costs as

 

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well as corporate spending and discretionary consumer spending as a result of inflation’s impact to unemployment rates, interest rates, wages, fuel prices and tax law changes, among others. While we do not believe that inflation has had a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations to date, we have experienced, and continue to experience, increases in the prices of labor and other costs of doing business. To the extent we take measures to mitigate the impact of inflation, these measures may not be effective and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows or raise the additional capital necessary to fund our operations.

As of December 31, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents of $1,001.0 million available to us to fund our operating, investing and financing activities, refunds payable to buyers of $76.8 million and payments due to sellers of $630.0 million. Our revenue was $1,770.6 million, $1,367.7 million and $1,036.7 million and the net cash provided by (used in) operating activities was $261.5 million, $307.4 million and $(47.5) million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. To date, we have financed our operations principally through cash from operations, private placements of our redeemable preferred stock and proceeds from our Credit Facilities.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our growth rate, the timing and extent of our sales and marketing efforts, our ability to attract and retain buyers and sellers and their willingness and ability to pay for our offerings, and any investments or acquisitions we may choose to pursue in the future. We cannot assure you that our business will generate sufficient cash flow to fund our operations or other liquidity needs. We may need to raise additional funds, and we may not be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all. Our ability to obtain financing will depend on a number of factors, including:

 

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general economic and capital market conditions;

 

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public perception regarding safety of large-scale events;

 

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the availability of credit from banks or other lenders;

 

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investor confidence in us; and

 

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our results of operations.

If we raise additional equity financing, our security holders may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock.

If we need additional capital and cannot raise it on acceptable terms, if at all, we may not be able to, among other things:

 

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develop and enhance our marketplace;

 

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continue to invest in our technology development and marketing organizations;

 

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hire, train and retain employees;

 

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respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated working capital requirements; or

 

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pursue acquisition opportunities.

Our inability to do any of the foregoing could reduce our ability to compete successfully and could have an adverse effect on our business.

 

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Risks Relating to this Offering and Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock

The trading price of our Class A common stock may be volatile, and could decline significantly and rapidly.

The trading price of our Class A common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

 

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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations;

 

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changes in the financial projections we may provide to the public or our failure to meet these projections;

 

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failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us or changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company;

 

•

variance in our financial performance from estimates of securities analysts or the expectations of investors;

 

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trading volume of our Class A common stock;

 

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overall performance of the equity markets and the economy as a whole;

 

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changes in the pricing of our offerings;

 

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actual or anticipated changes in our growth rate relative to that of our competitors;

 

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changes in the anticipated future size or growth rate of our addressable markets;

 

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announcements of new products, or of acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital-raising activities or commitments, by us or by our competitors;

 

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repurchases or expectations with respect to repurchases of our Class A common stock by us;

 

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additions or departures of board members, management or key personnel;

 

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rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;

 

•

new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business, including those related to privacy, data security, data protection and cybersecurity in the U.S. or globally;

 

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lawsuits threatened or filed against us;

 

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other events or factors, including those resulting from political unrest, war, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events;

 

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health epidemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza and other highly infectious diseases;

 

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expiration of lock-up agreements and market stand-off provisions; and

 

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sales or expectations with respect to sales of shares of our capital stock by us or our security holders.

In addition, stocks of newly public companies and particularly companies in the technology industry have experienced significant price and volume fluctuations. Stock prices of many companies, including technology companies, have fluctuated in a manner often unrelated to the operating performance of those companies. These fluctuations may be even more pronounced in the trading market for our Class A common stock shortly following this offering.

Furthermore, in the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against that company. If we were involved in any similar litigation, we could incur substantial costs and our management’s attention and resources could be diverted.

 

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An active, liquid, and orderly market for our Class A common stock may not develop or be sustained. You may be unable to sell your Class A common stock at or above the price you bought them for.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our Class A common stock. An active, liquid and orderly trading market for our Class A common stock may not develop following the completion of this offering or, if developed, it may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may reduce the fair value of your shares and impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration.

The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock may not be indicative of the market price of our Class A common stock after this offering.

The initial public offering price was determined by negotiations between us and representatives of the underwriters, based on numerous factors which we discuss in “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest),” and may not be indicative of the market price of our Class A common stock after this offering. If you purchase our Class A common stock, you may not be able to resell those shares at or above the initial public offering price.

We will have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds to us from this offering and may not use them effectively.

We will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds to us from this, including for any of the purposes described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds,” and you will not have the opportunity as part of your investment decision to assess whether the net proceeds are being used appropriately. Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of the net proceeds from this offering, our ultimate use may vary substantially from our currently intended use. Investors will need to rely on the judgment of our management with respect to the use of proceeds. If we do not use the net proceeds that we receive in this offering effectively, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be harmed, and the market price of our Class A common stock could decline.

You will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the net tangible book value of the shares of Class A common stock you purchase in this offering.

The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock immediately after this offering. If you purchase shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, you will experience immediate dilution of $     per share, representing the difference between our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after giving effect to the sale of Class A common stock in this offering and the assumed initial public offering price of $     per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. See “Dilution.”

Additional stock issuances could result in significant dilution to our stockholders.

We expect to issue additional capital stock in the future that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. For example, we have and expect to continue to grant equity awards to employees, directors and consultants under our equity incentive plans. Any issuances of common stock resulting from the exercise of outstanding stock options or the settlement of outstanding RSUs would be dilutive to holders of our common stock. We may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. In addition, as part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in companies, products or technologies and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. The amount of dilution as a result of any of these issuances could be substantial and cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to decline.

 

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Future sales of our Class A common stock in the public market could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market following the completion of this offering, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our Class A common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. Many of our existing equity holders have substantial unrecognized gains on the value of the equity they hold based upon the price per share in this offering, and therefore, may take steps to sell their shares or otherwise secure the unrecognized gains on those shares. We are unable to predict the timing of or the effect that such sales may have on the prevailing market price of our Class A common stock.

In connection with this offering, we, all of our directors and executive officers, and holders of substantially all of our Class A common stock and securities exercisable for or convertible into our Class A common stock, have entered or will enter into lock-up agreements with the underwriters and/or agreements with market stand-off provisions that restrict our and their ability to sell or transfer shares of our capital stock, and securities convertible into or exercisable or exchangeable for shares of our capital stock, for a period of days from the date of this prospectus, which we refer to as the lock-up period, subject to certain customary exceptions and certain provisions that provide for the early release of certain shares. See “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” and “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest)” for additional information. All of our shares of Class A common stock, other than those sold in this offering, which are freely tradable, will become eligible for sale upon expiration of the lock-up period, except for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”).

In addition, after this offering and giving effect to the Reclassification, the Existing Preferred Stock Conversion, the Redeemable Common Stock Reclassification, the RSU Settlement and the Warrant Exercise, up to    shares of our Class A common stock may be issued upon exercise of outstanding stock options or vesting and settlement of outstanding RSUs, and up to    shares of our Class A common stock are available for future issuance under our 2015 Plan, 2012 Plan, A&R 2022 Plan and our ESPP, and will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, exercise limitations, the lock-up agreements and market stand-off provisions, and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. We intend to register all of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options or other equity incentive awards we may grant in the future for public resale under the Securities Act. Shares of Class A common stock will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent such options are exercised and RSUs settle, subject to the lock-up agreements and market stand-off provisions described above and compliance with applicable securities laws. If these additional shares of Class A common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline.

Further, holders of approximately 44,824,072 shares as of December 31, 2024, or approximately   % of our capital stock after the completion of this offering, will have rights, subject to some conditions and the lock-up agreements and market stand-off provisions described above, to require us to file registration statements covering the sale of their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to remedy these material weaknesses, experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to continue to design, implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.

As a result of becoming a public company, we will be required, under the rules and regulations of the SEC regarding compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404”), to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting beginning

 

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with our second Annual Report on Form 10-K. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

To comply with the requirements of being a reporting company under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder (the “Exchange Act”), including performing the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404, we will need to implement additional internal control over financial reporting, including but not limited to controls over relevant information systems, and hire additional accounting and finance staff. This will require that we incur substantial additional professional fees and internal costs to expand our accounting and finance functions and that we expend significant management efforts. We have spent and expect to continue to spend significant time and resources designing, evaluating and testing the accounting procedures and internal controls of the company. Prior to this offering, we have never been required to test our internal control over financial reporting within a specified period. We may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective.

As of December 31, 2024, the following material weaknesses existed:

 

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we did not design or maintain an effective control environment commensurate with our financial reporting requirements; specifically, we did not maintain a sufficient complement of personnel with an appropriate degree of accounting knowledge, experience and training to appropriately analyze, record and disclose accounting and reporting requirements; and

 

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we did not effectively design and maintain effective controls in response to the risks of material misstatement; specifically, changes to existing controls or the implementation of new controls have not been sufficient to respond to changes to the risks of material misstatement to financial reporting.

These material weaknesses contributed to the following additional material weaknesses:

 

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we did not design and maintain formal accounting policies, procedures and controls over significant accounts and disclosures to achieve complete, accurate and timely financial accounting, reporting and disclosures, including segregation of duties and adequate controls related to the preparation and review of journal entries and account reconciliations; and

 

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we did not design and maintain controls over the accounting for revenue and associated reserves, income taxes, indirect taxes and the preparation of the financial statements including the statement of cash flows and related disclosures.

The material weaknesses described above resulted in the restatement of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 and audit adjustments to revenue and associated reserves, indirect tax contingencies, income taxes, interest expense, goodwill, and classification of financial statement accounts in our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022. Additionally, these material weaknesses could result in a misstatement of substantially all of our accounts or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

In addition to the above, we did not design and maintain effective controls over IT general controls for information systems that are relevant to the preparation of the consolidated financial statements. Specifically, we did not design and maintain: (i) program change management controls for financial systems to ensure that IT program and data changes affecting financial IT applications and underlying accounting records are identified, tested, authorized and implemented appropriately, (ii) user access controls to ensure appropriate segregation of duties and that adequately

 

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restrict user and privileged access to financial applications, programs, and data to appropriate personnel, (iii) computer operations controls to ensure that critical batch jobs are monitored and data backups are authorized and monitored and (iv) testing and approval controls for program development to ensure that new software development is aligned with business and IT requirements. These IT deficiencies did not result in any misstatements to the consolidated financial statements; however, the deficiencies, when aggregated, could impact our ability to maintain effective segregation of duties, as well as the effectiveness of IT-dependent controls (such as automated controls that address the risk of material misstatement to one or more assertions, along with the IT controls and underlying data that support the effectiveness of system-generated data and reports) that could result in misstatements potentially impacting all financial statement accounts and disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Accordingly, we have determined these deficiencies in the aggregate constitute a material weakness.

We are in the process of implementing a plan to remediate the material weaknesses described above. Our remediation plan includes the hiring of additional accounting and financial reporting personnel and implementing additional policies, procedures and controls, all of which have and will continue to cause us to incur additional costs. We have performed a risk assessment and begun identifying control activities to be implemented in response to the identified risks, which will include improving our IT general controls, segregation of duties controls, period-end financial reporting controls, journal entry controls and additional procedures and controls within the areas of revenue and associated reserves, income taxes, indirect taxes and the preparation for the financial statements including the statement of cash flows and related disclosures. In addition, we have engaged a third-party provider to help us assess and improve our internal control over financial reporting in preparation for compliance with Section 404. When we are satisfied the internal control over financial reporting associated with the material weaknesses has been effectively designed and has operated within our company for a sufficient period of time, we will determine if we have remediated our material weaknesses. We have not been required to provide a management assessment of internal control over financial reporting under the rules and regulations of the SEC regarding compliance with Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404(a)”). It is possible that if we had a Section 404(a) assessment, additional material weaknesses may have been identified. Additionally, our registered independent public accounting firm has not been engaged to perform an audit of our internal control over financial reporting.

In the future, it is possible that additional material weaknesses may be identified that we may be unable to remedy before the requisite deadline for those reports. Our ability to comply with the annual internal control over financial reporting requirements will depend on the effectiveness of our financial reporting and relevant information systems and controls across our company. Any weaknesses or deficiencies or any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in the implementation or operation of these controls, could harm our results of operations and cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations or result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, which could adversely affect our business and reduce our stock price.

If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.

Beginning with our second Annual Report on Form 10-K, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, unless we are then eligible for any other exemption from such requirement. If we are unable to confirm that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline.

 

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We are controlled by our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Eric H. Baker, whose interests in our business may be different than yours.

Mr. Baker, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, controls approximately    % of the combined voting power of our common stock. As a result, Mr. Baker has the ability to substantially control our company, including the ability to control the outcome of any action requiring the general approval of our stockholders, including the election of our board of directors, the adoption of amendments to our certificate of incorporation and stockholder amendments to our by-laws, and the approval of any merger or sale of substantially all of our assets. This concentration of ownership and voting power may also delay, defer or even prevent an acquisition by a third party or other change of control of our company, and may make some transactions more difficult or impossible without the support of Mr. Baker, even if such events are in the best interests of minority stockholders. This concentration of voting power may have an adverse impact on the price of our Class A common stock. Each share of our Class B common stock has 100 votes per share on matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders. Such shares of Class B common stock will only convert into shares of Class A common stock having one vote per share (i) at the option of the holder, (ii) automatically on the date and time specified by the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Class B common stock, voting separately as a class, and (iii) automatically upon any transfer, whether or not for value, except for certain permitted transfers to related and affiliated persons of Mr. Baker described in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, including transfers to immediate family members of Mr. Baker, including upon Mr. Baker’s death, for estate planning purposes provided any voting or economic interests are held by Mr. Baker or his immediate family members, and to certain affiliates of Mr. Baker or his immediate family members provided any voting or economic interests are held by Mr. Baker or his immediate family members. Immediately following this offering, all outstanding shares of our Class B common stock will be held by Mr. Baker. As a result, Mr. Baker and his permitted transferees will continue to control the outcome of matters submitted to stockholders so long as they hold     shares of Class B common stock in aggregate, which represents    % of the outstanding shares of all our common stock outstanding. Moreover, in the future, we may decide to issue additional shares of Class B common stock, including upon the vesting and exercise or settlement of existing or future equity awards, to Mr. Baker or other employees or third parties. Any future issuance of Class B common stock would be dilutive to holders of Class A common stock and would have the effect of further increasing the voting power held by any individual or entity that receives such shares. For additional information regarding the share ownership, see “Principal Stockholders.”

We cannot predict the impact our governance structure, capital structure and the concentrated control by Mr. Baker may have on our stock price or our business.

We cannot predict whether our governance structure or multiple share class capital structure, combined with the concentrated control by Mr. Baker, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, will result in a lower trading price or greater fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A common stock or will result in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. In addition, some indices may exclude companies with multiple share classes from their membership under certain circumstances. Exclusion from indices could make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.

We are exempt from certain corporate governance requirements since we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of NYSE rules, and, as a result, our stockholders do not have the protections afforded by these corporate governance requirements.

Mr. Baker, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, controls more than 50% of our combined voting power. As a result, we are considered a “controlled company” for the purposes of NYSE rules and corporate governance standards, and therefore we are permitted to, and we intend to, elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements of the NYSE, including those that would otherwise require our board of directors to have a majority of independent directors and require that we establish a compensation committee and

 

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a nominating and corporate governance committee, each comprised entirely of independent directors. We currently do not plan to establish a nominating and corporate governance committee composed entirely of independent directors as permitted by these exemptions. Accordingly, holders of our Class A common stock do not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the rules and corporate governance standards of the NYSE, and the ability of our independent directors to influence our business policies and affairs may be reduced. We expect to remain a controlled company until Mr. Baker no longer controls more than 50% of our combined voting power. See “Management—Director Independence.”

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws to be effective upon the completion of this offering may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that:

 

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provide our holders of Class B common stock with the ability to significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A and Class B common stock;

 

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authorize our board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, shares of undesignated preferred stock with terms, rights and preferences determined by our board of directors that may be senior to our Class A common stock;

 

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provide the ability of stockholders to act by written consent only as long as holders of our Class B common stock hold at least a majority of the voting power of our capital stock;

 

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specify that from and after the date that holders of our Class B common stock hold less than a majority of the voting power of our capital stock, (i) our stockholders may not act by written consent in lieu of a meeting and (ii) special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our board of directors;

 

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establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our board of directors;

 

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from and after the date that holders of our Class B common stock hold less than a majority of the voting power of our capital stock, establish a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, who can only be removed for cause by affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class;

 

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for as long as Mr. Baker is serving as Chairman of our board of directors, require his presence to establish a quorum for the transaction of business and his affirmative vote to effect any action of the board or fill any vacancy on the board;

 

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provide the ability of our board of directors to amend our amended and restated bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;

 

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specify that, from and after the date that holders of our Class B common stock hold less than a majority of the voting power of our capital stock, stockholders may only amend our amended and restated bylaws by affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class;

 

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from and after the date that holders of our Class B common stock hold less than a majority of the voting power of our capital stock, certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may only be amended by affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting

 

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power of all of the then outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class; and

 

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prohibit cumulative voting in the election of directors.

These provisions may disrupt or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction or changes in our management could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.

Our governance agreement with certain of our principal stockholders grant such stockholders certain rights with respect to the control and management of our business, which may prevent us from taking actions that may be beneficial to us and our other stockholders.

We are party to a side letter regarding governance with Madrone Partners, L.P. (“Madrone”) and Bessemer Venture Partners (“Bessemer”), each a holder of more than 5% of our capital stock, and Eric Baker, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer (the “Governance Side Letter”). Under the Governance Side Letter, among other things, we and Eric Baker, as our controlling stockholder, will be required to obtain each of Madrone and Bessemer’s prior approval to: (1) amend or modify certain conversion rights upon sale and transfer associated with our Class B common stock in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and (2) appoint the successor to Mr. Baker in the event of his resignation as our Chief Executive Officer or his death or incapacity, and any of his successors thereto. Accordingly, for so long as the Governance Side Letter remains in effect, Madrone and Bessemer will have significant influence with respect to the future of our management and capital structure. These provisions could limit our ability to take certain actions that may be in our best interest and the best interest of our other stockholders, including the identification and appointment of a successor Chief Executive Officer, which ultimately could affect the market price of our Class A common stock. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Governance Side Letter” and “Description of Capital Stock—Governance Approval Rights” for more information.

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.

In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”), our amended and restated bylaws to be effective upon the completion of this offering and our indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers will provide that:

 

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We will indemnify our directors and officers for serving us in those capacities or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful.

 

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We may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law.

 

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We are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification.

 

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We will not be obligated pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors or brought to enforce a right to indemnification.

 

 

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•

The rights conferred in our amended and restated bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons.

We may not retroactively amend our amended and restated bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and, to the extent enforceable, the federal district courts of the U.S. of America as the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which will restrict our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that, unless the Corporation consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, or the Court of Chancery, is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions, suits or proceedings: any derivative action, suit or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by a current or former director, officer or other employee or stockholder of the Corporation, any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws (as either may be amended or restated) or as to which the Delaware General Corporation Law confers exclusive jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery, and any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. If the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction thereof, such actions, suits or proceedings shall be brought in the federal district court of the District of Delaware or other state courts of the State of Delaware. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will further provide that the federal district courts of the U.S. will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act or any other claim for which the federal courts of the U.S. have exclusive jurisdiction. We cannot be certain that a court would enforce such a provision. While the Delaware Supreme Court has recently upheld provisions of the certificates of incorporation of other Delaware corporations that are similar to these forum provisions and courts in California and New York have also upheld similar exclusive forum provisions, there is currently a circuit split as to whether exclusive forum provisions requiring derivative litigation to be filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery could foreclose a derivative suit alleging a violation of the Exchange Act. Neither the Delaware nor the Securities Act forum provisions are intended by us to limit the forums available to our stockholders for actions or proceedings asserting claims arising under the Exchange Act, which are already limited to the federal courts of the U.S. pursuant to the Exchange Act.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions.

These exclusive forum provisions may (i) increase the costs for an investor and/or (ii) limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

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General Risk Factors

Our business may be materially and adversely affected by the occurrence of extraordinary events, such as terrorist attacks, geopolitical and military conflicts, disease epidemics or pandemics, severe weather events and natural disasters.

The occurrence and threat of extraordinary events, such as terrorist attacks, intentional or unintentional mass-casualty incidents, geopolitical and military conflicts, public health concerns such as contagious disease epidemics or pandemics, natural disasters, including fires and earthquakes or similar severe weather events, may deter artists from touring, teams from holding games and/or substantially decrease the use of and demand for our services, which may decrease our revenue or expose us to substantial liability. Terrorism and security incidents in the past, military actions in foreign locations, periodic elevated terrorism alerts and fears from publicized contagious disease epidemics and pandemics have raised numerous challenging operating factors, including public concerns regarding air travel, military actions and additional national or local catastrophic incidents, causing a nationwide disruption of commercial and leisure activities. In the event of actual or threatened terrorism events, some artists may refuse to travel or book tours, which could adversely affect our business. Attendance at events may decline due to fears over terrorism, which could adversely impact our results of operations. The occurrence of these events may deter buyers from attending and purchasing tickets to sports, concerts, theater and other live events, which could adversely impact our business and financial performance.

Moreover, performers, venues, teams or promoters may decide to cancel sports, concerts, theater and other live events due to social distancing requirements, such as those imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, or due to severe weather events, natural disasters or military conflicts. Cancellations of events can adversely affect our financial performance, as a result of lower GMS processed on our platform and fee and ticket refunds or credits that we provide to buyers in connection with canceled events.

Attention to sustainability and corporate responsibility matters may impose additional risks and costs on our business.

Attention has been given to sustainability and corporate responsibility matters by our stakeholders, including by investors, buyers, sellers, employees, regulators, politicians and the general public in the U.S. and abroad. Expectations regarding voluntary and potential mandatory sustainability and corporate responsibility initiatives and disclosures may result in increased costs, changes in demand for certain products, enhanced compliance or disclosure obligations, or otherwise adverse impacts to our business, financial condition or results of operations. There have been heightened attention with respect to companies’ practices, disclosures and performance in relation to sustainability, corporate responsibility, climate change, human rights, human capital management, data privacy and security and supply chains, among other topics. Any requirements to monitor, report and comply with sustainability and corporate responsibility commitments and reporting obligations will result in additional costs and will require additional resources that may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our Class A common stock in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gains and you may never receive a return on your investment.

You should not rely on an investment in our Class A common stock to provide dividend income. While we declared and paid a cash dividend on our common stock in 2018, we do not intend to declare or pay a cash dividend on our Class A common stock. We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. In addition, the terms of any existing or future debt agreements may preclude us from paying dividends. For example, our Credit Facilities restrict us from making certain dividend payments. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our Class A common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our Class A common stock.

 

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If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish unfavorable or inaccurate research about our business, the market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock could decline.

The market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock following the completion of this offering will be heavily influenced by the way analysts interpret our financial information and other disclosures. We do not have control over these analysts. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if industry analysts cease coverage of us, our stock price would be negatively affected. If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, downgrade our Class A common stock, or publish negative reports about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our Class A common stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price to decline and could decrease the trading volume of our Class A common stock.

If our operating and financial performance in any given period does not meet any guidance that we provide to the public, the market price of our Class A common stock may decline.

We may, but are not obligated to, provide public guidance on our expected operating and financial results for future periods. Any such guidance will be comprised of forward-looking statements subject to the risks and uncertainties described in this prospectus and in our other public filings and public statements. Our actual results may not always be in line with or exceed any guidance we have provided, especially in times of economic uncertainty. If, in the future, our operating or financial results for a particular period do not meet any guidance we provide or the expectations of investment analysts, or if we reduce our guidance for future periods, the market price of our Class A common stock may decline. Even if we do issue public guidance, there can be no assurance that we will continue to do so in the future.

As a public company, we will be subject to additional requirements and regulations with respect to our disclosure obligations, accounting procedures and internal controls, which will make it more difficult and costly for us to operate our business.

Following this offering, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations of the NYSE. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, on our board committees or as executive officers. In addition, stockholder activism and the level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional significant compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate. If we are unable to satisfy our obligations as a public company, we could be subject to delisting of our Class A common stock, fines, sanctions, other regulatory action and potentially civil litigation.

We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to compliance with our public company responsibilities and corporate governance practices.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, SEC and NYSE rules, and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to compliance with these requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we will incur as a public company or the specific timing of such costs.

 

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, future events and our future business, financial condition and results of operations. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “outlook,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “will” and “would” or the negative version of those words or phrases or other comparable words or phrases of a future or forward-looking nature. These forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry as well as certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:

 

•

our ability to compete in the ticketing industry against current or future competitors;

 

•

our ability to maintain relationships with buyers and sellers, including individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders;

 

•

the demand for tickets on our platform or for live events in general;

 

•

our ability to continue to improve our platform and maintain and enhance our brands;

 

•

the impact of extraordinary events or adverse economic conditions on discretionary consumer and corporate spending or on the supply and demand of live events;

 

•

our ability to rely on third-party platforms to distribute our applications or host our ticketing platform;

 

•

our ability to expand into our new direct issuance business, into adjacent market opportunities across live entertainment and into additional live event and experience categories;

 

•

our ability to comply with domestic regulatory regimes;

 

•

our ability to successfully defend against litigation;

 

•

the effects of seasonal trends on our results of operations;

 

•

our ability to maintain the integrity of our information systems and infrastructure, and to mitigate possible cybersecurity risks;

 

•

our ability to generate sufficient cash flows or raise additional capital necessary to fund our operations or service our debt, contractual commitments or obligations;

 

•

our ability to remediate material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting;

 

•

our ability to effectively manage our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and rising inflation rates;

 

•

the increased expenses associated with being a public company;

 

•

our ability to attract and retain a qualified management team and other team members while controlling our labor costs; and

 

•

our intended use of proceeds from this offering and our existing cash and cash equivalents.

We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this prospectus.

You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations

 

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and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. The results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this prospectus. And while we believe such information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, such information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this prospectus to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus or to reflect new information, actual results, revised expectations, or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments.

 

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MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

This prospectus includes estimates regarding market and industry data. Unless otherwise indicated, information concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations, market position, market opportunity and market size, are based on our management’s knowledge and experience in the markets in which we operate, together with currently available information obtained from various sources, including publicly available information, industry reports and publications, surveys, our customers, trade and business organizations and other contacts in the markets in which we operate. Certain information is based on management estimates, which have been derived from third-party sources, as well as data from our internal research.

In presenting this information, we have made certain assumptions that we believe to be reasonable based on such data and other similar sources and on our knowledge of, and our experience to date in, the markets in which we operate. While we believe the estimated market and industry data included in this prospectus is generally reliable, such information is inherently uncertain and imprecise. Market and industry data is subject to change and may be limited by the availability of raw data, the voluntary nature of the data gathering process and other limitations inherent in any statistical survey of such data. In addition, projections, assumptions and estimates of the future performance of the markets in which we operate are necessarily subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by third parties and by us.

The source of certain statistical data, estimates and forecasts contained in this prospectus are the following independent industry publications or reports:

 

•

CoLab, LLC, StubHub Brand Study conducted on ProQuo AI, 2024. The StubHub Brand Study, which we commissioned, included quantitative and qualitative analysis of the top industry brands, encompassing responses from 2,167 individuals in the U.S. The StubHub Brand Study ranked the prompted brand awareness in the U.S. by asking respondents which brands within the category they were aware of while showing the individual seven of the top industry brands.

 

•

Custom Market Insights, Global Music Tourism Market 2024-2033, February 2024.

 

•

Euromonitor International Limited, Travel 2025 edition, retail value RSP, US$, fixed 2024 exchange rate, current terms.

 

•

Global Market Insights, Sports Tourism Market, March 2024.

 

•

H2 Gambling Capital, February 2025.

 

•

IBISWorld, Sports Franchises in the US, 2023.

 

•

L.E.K. Consulting, Experiences With Character: The New Leisure Economy, 2019.

 

•

L.E.K. Consulting, Unlocking Growth Potential in Site-Based Entertainment, 2024.

 

•

Major League Soccer, MLS history! El Tráfico at Rose Bowl sets single-game attendance record, 7/04/2023.

 

•

Music Industry Research Association and the Princeton University Survey Research Center, Inaugural Music Industry Research Association (MIRA) Survey of Musicians, 2018.

 

•

Pollstar, Data on Average Ticket Prices Across top 100 North American Tours, 2024.

 

•

ScoreBig as cited in Los Angeles Times, AEG’s AXS teams with ScoreBig to sell cheaper concert tickets, April 8, 2016.

 

•

Technavio’s, “Global Licensed Sports Merchandise Market 2025-2029” Report, published by Infiniti Research, January 2025.

 

•

Technavio’s, “Global Secondary Tickets Market 2025-2029” Report, published by Infiniti Research, January 2025.

 

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•

Technavio’s, “North America Secondary Tickets Market by Event Type and Channel - Forecast and Analysis - 2023-2027” Report, published by Infiniti Research, October 2023.

The content of the above sources, except to the extent specifically set forth in this prospectus, does not constitute a portion of this prospectus and is not incorporated herein.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the sale of shares of our Class A common stock in this offering will be approximately $    million (or $    million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full), assuming an initial public offering price of $    per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $    per share would increase or decrease, respectively, the net proceeds that we receive from this offering by approximately $    million, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, an increase or decrease of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares offered by us would increase or decrease, respectively, the net proceeds that we receive from this offering by approximately $    million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $    per share remains the same, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

We intend to use the net proceeds that we receive from this offering to repay approximately $    of existing indebtedness outstanding under our term loan Credit Facilities and the remainder for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or make investments in businesses, products, offerings and technologies, although we do not have agreements or commitments for any material acquisitions or investments at this time.

Our term loan Credit Facilities mature in 2030. As of December 31, 2024, we had $2,385.0 million outstanding under our term loan Credit Facilities and interest rates of 9.11% for our 2024 USD Term Loan and 7.86% for our 2024 Euro Term Loan (each as defined below). See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities” for a description of the Credit Facilities.

As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot specify with certainty the specific allocations or all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to be received upon completion of this offering. The expected use of net proceeds from this offering represents our intentions based upon our present plans and business conditions, which could change in the future as or plans and business conditions evolve. We may find it necessary or advisable to use the net proceeds for other purposes, and we will have broad discretion in the application and specific allocations of the net proceeds of this offering. Pending the uses described above, we intend to invest the net proceeds from this offering in short- and intermediate-term, interest-bearing obligations, investment-grade instruments or other securities.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We declared a dividend of $286.1 million on October 11, 2018 for the holders of our Class A common stock, Class B common stock and Class C common stock, of which $3.3 million remains outstanding and was recorded within accrued expenses and other current liabilities on our audited consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2024. We do not currently anticipate paying any additional dividends on our Class A common stock or Class B common stock. Any declaration and payment of future dividends to holders of our Class A common stock or Class B common stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on many factors, including our financial condition, earnings, capital requirements, level of indebtedness, statutory and contractual restrictions applying to the payment of dividends, the provisions of Delaware law affecting the payment of dividends and distributions to stockholders and other considerations that our board of directors may deem relevant. In addition, our ability to pay cash dividends is currently restricted by the terms of our outstanding debt instruments. Future agreements governing our indebtedness may also further limit our ability to pay dividends. See “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to this Offering and Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock—Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our Class A common stock in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gains and you may never receive a return on your investment.”

 

72

CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of December 31, 2024 on:

 

•

an actual basis;

 

•

a pro forma basis to give effect to (a) the reclassification of 865,756 shares of Class C common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 into an equal number of shares of Class A common stock, (b) the automatic conversion of 20,000 shares of Series I redeemable preferred stock, 32,892 shares of Series J redeemable preferred stock and 24,025 shares of Series M redeemable preferred stock into an aggregate of    shares of our Class A common stock, at the Series I Conversion Price, the Series J Conversion Price and the Series M Conversion Price, respectively, (c) the termination of the contingent redemption feature upon the listing of our Class A common stock on the NYSE in connection with this offering and related reclassification of all 294,593 shares of redeemable common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 into permanent Class A common stock, (d) the issuance of     shares of our Class A common stock subject to     RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024 under our 2012 Plan and the 2022 Plan, for which the service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, as applicable, were fully or partially satisfied as of December 31, 2024 and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering, (e) the issuance of 55,328 shares of our Class A common stock upon the issuance and net exercise of warrants to purchase shares of our Class A common stock, with an exercise price of $0.01 per share, which were fully exercised between December 31, 2024 and March 21, 2025, (f) stock-based compensation expense of $   associated with RSUs, stock options, warrants and restricted stock for which the service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, as applicable, were fully or partially satisfied as of December 31, 2024 and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering, reflected as an increase to additional paid-in-capital and accumulated deficit, and (g) the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, which will occur immediately prior to the completion of this offering; and

 

•

a pro forma as adjusted basis to give effect to (a) the pro forma adjustments described above and (b) the sale and issuance of    shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $    per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (c) the application of the net proceeds that we receive from this offering to repay approximately $    of existing indebtedness outstanding under our term loan Credit Facilities as described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds.”

 

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You should read this information in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus and in the sections titled “Prospectus Summary—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Information” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

 

		As of December 31, 2024
		Actual				Pro Forma				Pro Forma As Adjusted(1)
		(in thousands, except share and per share data)
Cash and cash equivalents		$	1,000,965			$				$
Revolving credit facility			—
Long-term debt			2,331,507
Series I redeemable preferred stock bifurcated derivative, Series J redeemable preferred stock liability and Series M redeemable preferred stock liability			73,387
Redeemable preferred stock, $0.001 par value; 510,000 shares issued and outstanding, actual; and      shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			474,920
Redeemable common stock, $0.001 par value; 294,593 shares issued and outstanding, actual; no shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			22,258
Stockholders’ equity:
Preferred stock, $0.001 par value; 28,000,000 shares authorized, actual; 100,000,000 shares authorized, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted; no shares issued and outstanding, actual, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			—
Class A common stock, $0.001 par value; 73,000,000 shares authorized, actual;      shares authorized, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted; 54,774,532 shares issued and outstanding, actual; 3,000,000,000 shares issued and outstanding, pro forma; and     shares issued and outstanding, pro forma as adjusted			55
Class B common stock, $0.001 par value; 10,000,000 shares authorized, actual; 200,000,000 shares authorized, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted; 4,950,000 shares issued and outstanding, actual; and     shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			5
Class C common stock, $0.001 par value; 3,215,435 shares authorized, actual; no shares authorized, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted; 865,756 shares issued and outstanding, actual; and no shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			1
Additional paid-in capital			2,255,742
Accumulated other comprehensive income			129,430
Accumulated deficit			(1,504,669	)
Total stockholders’ equity			880,564
Total capitalization		$	3,782,636			$				$

 

(1)

The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. For example, a $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $    per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, respectively, each of cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ equity and total capitalization by $    million or $    million, respectively, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

 

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Similarly, an increase or decrease of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares offered by us would increase or decrease, respectively, each of cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ equity and total capitalization by $    million or $    million, respectively, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $    per share remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The number of shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering on a pro forma and pro forma as adjusted basis is based on     shares of Class A common stock and     shares of Class B common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 and excludes:

 

•

the following shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of stock options outstanding under our 2015 Plan and our 2022 Plan as of December 31, 2024:

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of stock options outstanding as of December 31, 2024, with a weighted-average exercise price of $    per share; and

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of stock options outstanding as of December 31, 2024 which will vest upon the satisfaction of certain service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, including achievement of certain stock price thresholds ranging from $120.00 to $400.00 over certain trading periods for our Class A common stock (of which      would have vested if the volume-weighted average price for the requisite trading period was equal to the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus), with an exercise price of $30.21 per share;

 

•

the following shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs outstanding under our 2012 Plan and the 2022 Plan as of December 31, 2024, excluding     shares of Class A common stock issued pursuant to the RSU Settlement:

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024, including shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs for which the service-based vesting conditions, as applicable, have been satisfied or are expected to be satisfied after December 31, 2024 and on or prior to the date of this prospectus and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering;

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of certain employment-related RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024, including      RSUs that have met their service-based conditions as of    , 2025 and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering and      RSUs that are not expected to meet their service-based vesting conditions and will be forfeited upon the completion of this offering; and

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024 which will vest upon the satisfaction of certain service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, including achievement of GMS goals ranging from $8.8 billion to $16.5 billion and certain stock price thresholds ranging from $185.90 to $759.00 over certain trading periods for our Class A common stock (of which      would have vested if the volume-weighted average price for the requisite trading period was equal to the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus);

 

•

shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under our A&R 2022 Plan, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under the A&R 2022 Plan; and

 

•

shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under our ESPP, which will become effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP.

 

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DILUTION

If you invest in our Class A common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be diluted immediately to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our Class A common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock immediately after this offering.

Our historical net tangible book value as of December 31, 2024 was $(2,740.7) million, or $(45.23) per share. Historical net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, redeemable preferred stock and redeemable common stock, which are not included within stockholders’ equity, divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of     , 2024.

Our pro forma net tangible book value as of December 31, 2024 was $    million, or $    per share. Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, redeemable preferred stock and redeemable common stock, which are not included within stockholders’ equity, divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 after giving effect to (a) the reclassification of 865,756 shares of Class C common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 into an equal number of shares of Class A common stock, (b) the automatic conversion of 20,000 shares of Series I redeemable preferred stock, 32,892 shares of Series J redeemable preferred stock and 24,025 shares of Series M redeemable preferred stock into an aggregate of     shares of our Class A common stock, at the Series I Conversion Price, the Series J Conversion Price and the Series M Conversion Price, respectively, (c) the termination of the contingent redemption feature upon the listing of our Class A common stock on the NYSE in connection with this offering and related reclassification of all 294,593 shares of redeemable common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 into permanent Class A common stock, (d) the issuance of     shares of our Class A common stock subject to     RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024 under our 2012 Plan and 2022 Plan, for which the service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, as applicable, were fully or partially satisfied as of December 31, 2024 and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering, (e) the issuance of 55,328 shares of our Class A common stock upon the issuance and net exercise of warrants to purchase shares of our Class A common stock, with an exercise price of $0.01 per share, which were fully exercised between December 31, 2024 and March 21, 2025, (f) stock-based compensation expense of $     associated with RSUs, stock options, warrants and restricted stock for which the service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, as applicable, were fully or partially satisfied as of December 31, 2024 and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering, reflected as an increase to additional paid-in-capital and accumulated deficit and (g) the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, which will occur immediately prior to the completion of this offering.

After giving further effect to (a) the issuance and sale of     shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $    per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (b) the application of the net proceeds that we receive from this offering to repay approximately $     of existing indebtedness outstanding under our term loan Credit Facilities as described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds,” our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2024 would have been $    million, or $    per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of $    to existing stockholders and immediate dilution of $    in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors purchasing Class A common stock in this offering. Dilution per share to new investors is determined by subtracting pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering from the assumed initial public offering price per share paid by new investors.

 

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The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis:

 

Assumed initial public offering price per share						$
Historical net tangible book value per share as of December 31, 2024		$	(45.23	)
Pro forma increase in net tangible book value per share as of December 31, 2024
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of December 31, 2024
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to investors purchasing shares in this offering
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after this offering
Dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors purchasing shares in this offering						$

The dilution information discussed above is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. For example, a $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $    per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, respectively, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $    and dilution per share to new investors purchasing shares in this offering by $   , assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, an increase or decrease of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares offered by us would increase or decrease, respectively, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $    and $   , respectively, and decrease or increase, respectively, the dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering by $    and $   , respectively, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $    per share remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock in full, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after this offering would be $    and the dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors purchasing shares in this offering would be $   .

The following table summarizes, as of December 31, 2024 on the pro forma as adjusted basis described above, the number of shares of common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us and the average price per share paid by existing stockholders and by new investors purchasing shares of Class A common stock in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $    per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and before deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us:

 

		Shares Purchased								Total Consideration								Weighted- Average Price Per Share
		Number				Percent				Amount				Percent
Existing stockholders								%		$						%		$
New investors								%		$						%		$
Total							100.0	%		$					100.0	%

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock in full, the number of shares of our common stock held by existing stockholders would be reduced to    % of the total number of shares of our Class A common stock outstanding after this offering, and the number of shares of Class A common stock held by new investors participating in the offering would be increased to    % of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding after this offering.

 

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The foregoing tables and calculations above (other than the historical net tangible book value calculations) are based on    shares of Class A common stock and    shares of Class B common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024 and excludes:

 

•

the following shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of stock options outstanding under our 2015 Plan and our 2022 Plan as of December 31, 2024:

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of stock options outstanding as of December 31, 2024, with a weighted-average exercise price of $    per share; and

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of stock options outstanding as of December 31, 2024 which will vest upon the satisfaction of certain service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, including achievement of certain stock price thresholds ranging from $120.00 to $400.00 over certain trading periods for our Class A common stock (of which      would have vested if the volume-weighted average price for the requisite trading period was equal to the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus), with an exercise price of $30.21 per share;

 

•

the following shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs outstanding under our 2012 Plan and the 2022 Plan as of December 31, 2024, excluding     shares of Class A common stock issued pursuant to the RSU Settlement:

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024, including      shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs for which the service-based vesting conditions, as applicable, have been satisfied or are expected to be satisfied after December 31, 2024 and on or prior to the date of this prospectus and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering;

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of certain employment-related RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024, including      RSUs that have met their service-based conditions as of the date of the prospectus and for which the performance-based vesting condition related to a liquidity event will be satisfied upon the completion of this offering and      RSUs that are not expected to meet their service-based vesting conditions and will be forfeited upon the completion of this offering; and

 

•

shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2024 which will vest upon the satisfaction of certain service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, including achievement of GMS goals ranging from $8.8 billion to $16.5 billion and certain stock price thresholds ranging from $185.90 to $759.00 over certain trading periods for our Class A common stock (of which      would have vested if the volume-weighted average price for the requisite trading period was equal to the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus);

 

•

shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under our A&R 2022 Plan, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under the A&R 2022 Plan; and

 

•

shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under our ESPP, which will become effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, as well as any future increases in the number of shares of Class A common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP.

To the extent that outstanding options are exercised, new stock options, RSUs or restricted stock are issued under our 2015 Plan, 2012 Plan or A&R 2022 Plan or we issue additional shares of common stock in the future, you will experience further dilution.

 

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with the “Prospectus Summary—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Information” as well as our historical consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should review the “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” for a discussion of forward-looking statements and important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Overview

Our mission is to be the global destination for consumers to access live events and experiences. We envision a future where all live event tickets are widely available to be conveniently purchased and every seat at every venue is filled.

Our journey began in 2000 when our Founder and CEO, Eric H. Baker, founded StubHub, the first online marketplace for secondary tickets, with the commitment to bring liquidity, transparency and trust to an opaque and inefficient category. When we started, secondary ticketing was a fragmented offline market, untouched by technology and data, with complicated problems to solve. To win in secondary ticketing, we had to create a technology-enabled marketplace where tickets were sourced and priced dynamically and all types of live events could be supported.

Today, we believe we operate the largest global secondary ticketing marketplace for live events. Our business model has achieved scale with high growth and generated significant revenue, profit and cash flow. We connect fans around the world with sellers who use our marketplace to reach passionate fans and price tickets efficiently. We operate our global ticketing marketplace through two brands: StubHub in North America and viagogo internationally.

In building our marketplace, we created and scaled core capabilities required to succeed in secondary ticketing:

 

•

Technology: End-to-end functionality capable of handling all types of events.

 

•

Distribution: Global distribution built to operate anywhere there is demand for live events.

 

•

Data: Data intelligence to optimize outcomes for both buyers and sellers.

 

•

Brand: Trusted brands that attract millions of participants without controlling the box office or venue access.

By bringing together buyers and sellers at scale, we unlocked a powerful flywheel effect and created an efficient monetization engine for sellers with a broad selection of tickets for fans. Our global scale and the core capabilities of our marketplace have enabled us to establish a leadership position and build durable competitive moats in secondary ticketing, and our focus is set on an even bigger opportunity. There is a critical need for a global marketplace that ensures liquidity, transparency and trust for all ticketing transactions, whether they involve secondary sales or original issuance. We believe that by bringing our end-to-end technology, global distribution, data intelligence and trusted brands to even more categories of live events and experiences, we will capture a larger market opportunity and play an even more vital role in the ecosystem in the future. Across verticals, we have observed how content owners gravitate towards online marketplaces with similar capabilities and we believe this trend will eventually shape the distribution and consumption of live events, further propelling our market opportunity.

 

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Over the last two decades, we have made material investments in our business to build a scaled global ticketing marketplace. We expect to be able to leverage existing investments to drive further growth in secondary ticketing and other categories of live events and experiences. With our competitive advantages in technology, distribution, data and brand, we believe we are well-positioned to continue generating growth, profit and cash flow into the future.

Our History and Key Milestones

Since the founding of StubHub and viagogo and through the recent combination of the two businesses, we have experienced several key milestones. We view the history of our businesses as occurring in three distinct phases:

Phase I: Founding and scaling secondary ticketing marketplaces globally

 

•

2000: Eric Baker founded StubHub, which quickly became the de facto standard for buying and selling secondary tickets in the U.S.

 

•

2006: Eric launched viagogo internationally to create a similar transformative experience for fans and sellers around the world.

 

•

2007: StubHub was sold to eBay.

 

•

2019: viagogo had become the de facto standard for buying and selling secondary tickets internationally, enabling Eric to acquire StubHub and bring together the two companies he founded to create a business with global scale.

Phase II: Acquisition and integration of StubHub

 

•

November 2019: viagogo announced the acquisition of StubHub from eBay, with the intention of accelerating growth and profitability following a decade-plus period of eBay ownership.

 

•

February 2020: viagogo closed the acquisition of StubHub, but StubHub remained completely operationally independent of viagogo’s management and oversight due to a regulatory review by the U.K. CMA.

 

•

March 2020: The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, leading to the near-total cancellation of large-scale live events globally.

 

•

September 2021: Requirements of the U.K. CMA review were satisfied, and viagogo began integration of StubHub following an 18-month hold. The combined company was renamed StubHub Holdings.

 

•

September 2022: Full platform integration of the two companies was completed and rapid transformation of StubHub in the U.S. began.

Phase III: Building the global consumer destination for live events and experiences

 

•

January 2023: Beginning of growth acceleration and market share recapture in the U.S.

 

•

December 2023: Completion of the first full fiscal year of integration, which resulted in successfully accelerating growth, generating significant profit and cash flow and entry into direct issuance partnerships with marquee content rights holders in the U.S. and international markets.

 

•

October 2024: Over 30% of attendees at World Series games in New York purchased their tickets through our marketplace via secondary and direct issuance sales.

 

•

December 2024: Achievement of our highest annual secondary ticketing and direct issuance GMS in 2024, surpassing $100 million of annual direct issuance GMS transacted on our marketplace.

 

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We believe that the speed and success of the integration and our financial performance today reflects the operational excellence of our leadership team that has been at the very forefront of online ticketing marketplaces.

Business Model

Transaction-Based Revenue Model Benefitting from Network Effects

We have created a business model where all constituents win. We generate substantially all of our revenue from fees we charge to facilitate purchase and sale transactions between buyers and sellers of tickets on our marketplace. As a marketplace business, we generally do not own the supply or take inventory risk. Rather, ticket inventory is provided dynamically by sellers on our marketplace.

Our business model benefits from network effects. As we attract more buyers and improve our distribution and network, sellers add more inventory and selection, which in turn leads to more buyers and greater distribution. We accept inventory from any valid source and enable sellers of all types, whether individual sellers, professional sellers or content rights holders, to list their tickets on our marketplace and find the right consumer to purchase them. Transaction activity on our marketplace also generates valuable data and insights that support our marketing strategy, pricing insights and merchandising capabilities. As a result, we believe scale drives compounding value to both sides of the marketplace.

Business Model Enabling a Scalable, Highly Profitable and Cash Flow Generative Financial Profile

The combination of high gross margin on each transaction, operating leverage, capital efficiency and favorable working capital dynamics has enabled our business to have a highly cash flow generative profile.

We Have Compelling Unit Economics with High Gross Margin on Each Transaction

Our business model has compelling unit economics, characterized by high gross margin on each transaction and efficient variable marketing spend. As a marketplace, we generally do not take inventory risk and incur limited variable costs with each transaction. During the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, our cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) as a percentage of revenue was 18.9%, 17.0% and 17.9%, respectively, providing us with significant gross profit to reinvest in the business. Our scale, data, distribution and technology provide us with controllable returns on sales and marketing investment. As a result, we can ensure that our sales and marketing expense on each transaction is less than our gross profit and sustain robust unit economics.

We Have a Scalable Cost Structure that Enables Operating Leverage

We have made material investments in our technology, distribution, data and brand to enable our marketplace to be highly scalable. This has enabled us to grow our revenue faster than our operating expenses in 2023. For the year ended December 31, 2023 our revenue grew by $331.0 million from $1,036.7 million to $1,367.7 million while our operating expenses decreased by $139.6 million from $1,254.1 million to $1,114.5 million over the same period. Due to a strategic decision to increase investments in new initiatives such as direct issuance, our operating expenses increased by $518.1 million from $1,114.5 million in 2023 to $1,632.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, while revenue increased by $402.9 million from $1,367.7 million in 2023 to $1,770.6 million over the same period in 2024. Our historical ability to grow our revenue faster than our operating expenses provides our business with significant potential profitability when we are strategically focused on margin expansion.

Our Business Model is Capital Efficient

We operate an asset-light business model, which does not require us to make significant investments in inventory or fixed assets. As an online marketplace with global distribution, we can reach large audiences and

 

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generate substantial revenue with limited ongoing capital requirements. During the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, we spent $6.4 million, $5.4 million and $2.3 million on capital expenditures, representing 0.4%, 0.4% and 0.2% of our revenue, respectively. As we continue to grow and expand our business, we will continue to focus on capital efficiency to generate meaningful returns for our stockholders.

We Benefit from Favorable Working Capital Dynamics

Our business model allows us to operate with negative net working capital. For transactions on our marketplace, we collect the full amount of GMS at the time of sale and remit payment to the seller at a later date. This provides us with a net working capital dynamic that benefits our operating cash flow as we grow. As of December 31, 2024, our net working capital deficit was $1,038.1 million. We define net working capital as total current assets, excluding cash and cash equivalents, less total current liabilities, excluding current long-term debt obligations. Other companies may define working capital differently than us, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure. We believe that the negative working capital dynamics in our business will continue as we scale, with further operating cash flow generation from working capital as our GMS grows.

We Benefit from Accumulated Net Operating Loss Carryforwards

Due to periods of losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has significant net operating loss carryforwards that can be used to offset taxable income and reduce our cash tax obligations. As of December 31, 2024, the Company had cumulative pre-tax U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of $1,067.5 million and non-U.S. net operating loss carryforwards of $209.8 million.

Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the growth and future success of our business depend on many factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must continue to successfully address in order to sustain our growth and improve our results of operations.

Attract Buyers Efficiently

In order to drive transaction activity on our marketplace, we must attract buyers efficiently. Our ability to do this relies on leveraging the strength of our leading global brands and performance marketing expertise. By combining unpaid traffic with high-return-on-investment marketing spend, we have a multi-faceted customer acquisition strategy that is designed to drive high-intent users to our marketplace and deliver superior buyer acquisition efficiency. Through our performance marketing channels, we are able to achieve consistent gross profit in excess of sales and marketing expenses on transactions. We believe that the combined strength of our StubHub brand in North America and viagogo brand internationally, as well as our performance marketing expertise will continue to enable us to attract buyers to the marketplace efficiently through these channels and continue to achieve strong profitability. In addition, buyers on our marketplace tend to exhibit repeat purchasing behavior, providing durable returns to our customer acquisition strategy. For example, as of December 31, 2024, the number of buyers who made two or more purchases on our platform during the previous 12 months grew 2.0x faster, year-over-year, than the number of buyers who made only one purchase on our platform during the previous 12 months. We believe this drives efficiency and growth over the long term.

Attract More Sellers

In order to deliver a compelling value proposition to buyers, we need a large and diverse inventory of live event tickets on our marketplace. Our ability to offer sufficient inventory requires us to maintain a large base of sellers and help them efficiently sell tickets so that they continue to utilize our marketplace. StubHub’s large base of individual sellers offers a unique breadth and depth of inventory that we believe sets us apart in the live event ticketing ecosystem. In addition to individual sellers, professional sellers and content rights holders also provide inventory on our marketplace. If we fail to attract new sellers, retain existing sellers or fail to provide a wide enough selection of tickets on our marketplace, the value proposition to buyers may be diminished.

 

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Monetize Transactions Across Our Platform

In order to grow our business, we must continue to monetize the ticketing transactions that we facilitate on our platform by charging fees to buyers and sellers for the services we provide. Our service fees per transaction are generally set as a percentage of the total transaction value. While the fees we charge can vary by transaction, we have maintained a consistent ratio of average service fees per transaction to GMS in excess of 20% over our history. Our ability to maintain attractive transaction economics reflects our value proposition to buyers and sellers.

Continued Production and Popularity of Live Events

Our ability to generate revenue and achieve growth is dependent on sports leagues, teams, venues, performing artists and other content rights holders offering live events as well as the number and popularity of these events in a given period. Consequently, large-scale events and tours, such as the FIFA World Cup in 2022 and Taylor Swift’s record-setting “Eras” tour in 2023 and 2024 can drive excess growth in certain periods, and if large-scale events or tours are canceled, reduced, do not repeat or do not achieve the same level of popularity, it could cause fluctuations in our year-over-year growth rates and adversely impact our financial performance in affected periods.

Investments in Our Technology, Products and Services

We plan to make focused investments in technology, products and services to support buyers and sellers on our marketplace, both to increase our market share in secondary ticketing and accelerate our traction in new initiatives, including our direct issuance solution and digital advertising opportunities. With over a combined 40 years of operating history across the StubHub and viagogo brands, we have already made significant investments in our marketplace to provide us with a leading market position today. We plan to continue to make targeted investments in products and services for buyers to enhance live event discovery, personalization and seamless purchase functionality. Our ambition is for all tickets to all events globally to eventually be available for purchase on our marketplace. We will also continue to invest in our marketplace to provide our sellers the ability to price and sell tickets in an efficient and informed manner. As we expand into new live events and experiences categories, we may make further investments in our technology in order to continue providing a trusted, end-to-end experience for buyers and sellers on our marketplace. Our results of operations may fluctuate as we make these investments to attract buyers and sellers and drive additional growth.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate substantially all of our revenue from fees we charge buyers and sellers for the services we provide to facilitate their transactions to buy and sell live event tickets on our marketplace. Our fees are generally set as a percentage of the GMS value of a transaction conducted on our platform. We also charge shipping fees to buyers of tickets. We recognize revenue for transaction facilitation net of the price of the tickets sold and we recognize revenue for shipping fees on a gross basis. We also generate and recognize revenue through the sale of tickets that we acquire and hold in inventory (“controlled tickets”) and offer for sale on ticketing marketplaces, including on our platform, on a gross basis. We acquire the inventory from content rights holders. Revenue earned from transaction facilitation and sale of controlled tickets that occur during a financial reporting period is recorded net of incentives, refunds for actual canceled events not previously reserved as well as an estimate for future canceled events.

Costs and Expenses

Cost of Revenue (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization)

Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) includes payment processing costs, costs of controlled tickets, ticket substitution and replacement costs, shipping costs, costs associated with the maintenance and support of our platform. Costs of controlled tickets include contingent costs estimated to be owed to content

 

83

rights holders upon the achievement of certain sales targets. Payment processing costs consist of merchant fees, expenses associated with the usage of cloud infrastructure and chargebacks. Costs associated with the maintenance and support of our platform include employee-related expenses, hosting and bandwidth and allocated overhead costs. We expect our cost of revenue to continue to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to invest in our business to support revenue growth. In addition, we expect our percentage of revenue growth to outpace increases in cost of revenue as we anticipate a reduction in our controlled ticket costs as a percentage of revenue.

Operations and Support

Operations and support expense is not directly related to revenue activities and primarily consists of compensation expenses for employees and outside contractors who provide buyer and seller support and allocated overhead costs. We expect our operations and support expenditures to continue to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to support revenue growth. In addition, we anticipate additional operations and support expense during the period in which we complete this offering as a result of the stock-based compensation expense associated with our RSUs as described in the section titled “—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Stock-Based Compensation.” We also expect to incur additional stock-based compensation expense going forward as a public company.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expense primarily consists of fixed and variable marketing and advertising expenses, including sponsorship fees paid to certain content rights holders, and personnel-related costs for sales and marketing employees, including allocated overhead costs. We expect sales and marketing expense to continue to increase in absolute dollars as we accelerate our marketing strategies to grow revenue. In addition, we anticipate additional sales and marketing expense during the period in which we complete this offering as a result of the stock-based compensation expense associated with our RSUs as described in the section titled “—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Stock-Based Compensation.” We also expect to incur additional stock-based compensation expense going forward as a public company.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expense includes personnel-related costs for functions such as product development, finance and accounting, legal and human resources as well as legal expenses, indirect tax contingency expenses, professional services expenses, allocated overhead costs, information technology costs and restructuring costs. We expect our general and administrative expense to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to grow our business. We expect to incur additional general and administrative expense as a result of operating as a public company, including expenses to comply with the rules and regulations of the SEC and listing rules of NYSE, as well as higher expenses for directors and officers insurance, investor relations and professional services. In addition, we anticipate additional general and administrative expense during the period in which we complete this offering as a result of the stock-based compensation expense associated with our RSUs, stock options, warrants and restricted stock as described in the section titled “—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Stock-Based Compensation.” We also expect to incur additional stock-based compensation expense going forward as a public company.

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and amortization expense primarily consists of depreciation and amortization expenses associated with our property and equipment and intangible assets. Depreciation includes expenses associated with computer equipment and software, office furniture and equipment and leasehold improvements. Amortization includes expenses associated with our acquired intangible assets. Depreciation and amortization are excluded from cost of revenue and operating expense line items.

 

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Other Income (Expense)

Interest Income

Interest income consists of interest earned on bank deposits and cash held at online payment companies, which are primarily comprised of short-term, highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less when purchased.

Interest Expense

Interest expense consists of interest incurred on borrowings and debt issuance costs that are amortized using the effective interest method, over the term of the debt. Interest rate swaps designated and accounted for as cash flow hedges are presented within interest expense.

Foreign Currency Gains (Losses)

Foreign currency gains (losses) represent the remeasurement of monetary assets to be received or liabilities to be paid for the settlement of a transaction denominated in a currency other than the functional currency.

Gains (Losses) on Derivatives

We use interest rate swaps to manage interest rate risk on future cash flows. Interest rate swaps not designated as a cash flow hedge are presented in gains (losses) on derivatives.

For derivative instruments that are not designated as hedging instruments any change in fair value during the reporting period is recognized in our consolidated statements of operations. For derivative instruments that are designated as cash flow hedges, any change in fair value during the period is reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive loss on our consolidated balance sheets and subsequently reclassified into our consolidated statements of operations in the same period the forecasted hedged interest payments affects earnings.

(Provision) Benefit for Income Taxes

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. Foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than those in the U.S. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the U.S. Accordingly, our effective tax rate is subject to significant variation due to several factors, including variability in our pre-tax and taxable income and loss and the mix of jurisdictions to which they relate, intercompany transactions, changes in how we do business, acquisitions, investments, tax audit developments, the valuation of our net deferred tax assets, foreign currency gains and losses, changes in statutes, regulations, case law and administrative practices, principles and interpretations related to tax, including changes to the global tax framework, and other laws and accounting rules in various jurisdictions and relative changes of expenses or losses for which tax benefits are not recognized. We continue to reassess the valuation allowance and uncertain tax positions quarterly, and if future evidence or events change this assessment, a tax benefit or provision will be recorded accordingly.

 

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Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented:

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2024				2023				2022
		(in thousands)
Revenue		$	1,770,645			$	1,367,719			$	1,036,715
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)			334,102				231,870				185,616
Operations and support			59,451				66,611				72,931
Sales and marketing			827,972				517,795				652,426
General and administrative			386,531				275,456				258,116
Depreciation and amortization			24,532				22,753				85,047
Total costs and expenses			1,632,588				1,114,485				1,254,136
Income (loss) from operations			138,057				253,234				(217,421	)
Interest income			41,118				22,514				2,814
Interest expense			(179,778	)			(155,942	)			(119,714	)
Other income (expense), net			1,907				(1,784	)			12,572
Foreign currency gains (losses)			41,070				(24,730	)			23,898
Loss on extinguishment of debt			(8,216	)			—				—
Gains (losses) on derivatives			3,101				(7,696	)			49,377
Total other expense, net			(100,798	)			(167,638	)			(31,053	)
Income (loss) before income taxes			37,259				85,596				(248,474	)
(Provision) benefit for income taxes			(40,059	)			319,605				(12,513	)
Net (loss) income		$	(2,800	)		$	405,201			$	(260,987	)

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024 and 2023

Revenue

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Revenue		$	1,770,645			$	1,367,719			$	402,926				29.5	%

The overall increase in our revenue in the amount of $402.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 is attributable to growth in GMS, which was primarily due to an increase in transaction volume on our platform.

Cost of Revenue (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization)

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization)		$	334,102			$	231,870			$	102,232				44.1	%

 

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The overall increase in our cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) in the amount of $102.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 is primarily attributable to an increase of $82.9 million in controlled ticket costs and $46.9 million of payment processing costs incurred during 2024 related to the increase in the volume of transactions we facilitated during 2024 as compared to 2023. This is partially offset by a reduction of $28.6 million in ticket substitution and replacement costs.

Operations and Support

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Operations and support		$	59,451			$	66,611			$	(7,160	)			(10.7	)%

The overall decrease in operations and support expenses in the amount of $7.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 is primarily attributable to operational efficiencies which led to a decrease in employee headcount partially offset by an increase in outsourced customer support.

Sales and Marketing

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Sales and marketing		$	827,972			$	517,795			$	310,177				59.9	%

The overall increase in sales and marketing expenses in the amount of $310.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 is primarily attributable to an increase of $317.1 million in advertising expenses driven by online marketing due to an increase in transaction volume and investments in new initiatives, such as diversifying online marketing channels, to grow revenue.

General and Administrative

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
General and administrative		$	386,531			$	275,456			$	111,075				40.3	%

The overall increase in general and administrative expense in the amount of $111.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 is primarily attributable to an increase of $44.8 million in litigation reserves for probable losses, an increase of $29.3 million in personnel-related costs, an increase of $25.7 million of one-time expenses in connection with our loan extension and an increase of $13.5 million in indirect tax and other tax expenses, partially offset by a decrease of $27.2 million in stock-based compensation expense.

Depreciation and Amortization

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Depreciation and amortization		$	24,532			$	22,753			$	1,779				7.8	%

 

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Depreciation and amortization expenses increased $1.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily due to increased depreciation and amortization for new assets placed into service.

Interest Income

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest income		$	41,118			$	22,514			$	18,604				82.6	%

Interest income increased $18.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily due to higher cash and cash equivalent balances throughout the year in combination with higher interest rates.

Interest Expense

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest expense		$	(179,778	)		$	(155,942	)		$	(23,836	)			15.3	%

Interest expense increased $23.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily due to higher variable interest rates for our outstanding term loans.

Other Income (Expense), Net

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Other income (expense), net		$	1,907			$	(1,784	)		$	3,691				*

 

*	Not meaningful

Other income (expense), net, increased $3.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily attributable to the one-time release of $1.9 million in reserves related to the StubHub Acquisition.

Foreign Currency Gains (Losses)

 

		Year Ended December 31,								$ Change				% Change
		2024				2023
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Foreign currency gains (losses)		$	41,070			$	(24,730	)		$	65,800				*

 

*	Not meaningful

Foreign currency gains (losses) increased $65.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, which is primarily attributable to the remeasurement of our 2024 Euro Term Loan obligation and indirect tax contingencies due to changes in the U.S. dollar to euro exchange rate.

 

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