Bending Spoons agrees to buy Eventbrite for $500 million to revive defunct brand

Bending Spoons, a company that buys and revitalizes stagnant technology companies, has agreed to buy Eventbrite for about $500 million, a far cry from the $1.76 billion the company was worth when it went public in 2018.

Just like many of Bending Spoons’ previous acquisitions, including Evernote, Meetup, Vimeo and AOL, Eventbrite has a strong brand, but the company’s business has stopped growing, according to audited financial statements.

The event marketplace and ticketing company was founded in 2006 by husband and wife team Julia and Kevin Hartz and Reno Visage. During its 12 years as a private company, the one-time tech darling has raised nearly $330 million in venture capital from major investors like Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management.

Unlike traditional private equity firms, Bending Spoons buys companies that it intends to hold forever, with the goal of turning them profitable by cutting costs, raising prices, and introducing new product features. In October, Bending Spoons announced a massive $270 million funding round that valued the company at $11 billion.

Besides Bending Spoons, other investors follow the strategy of acquiring, overhauling, and holding on to defunct software companies, often referred to as “venture zombie” companies. These companies include Constellation Software, Curious, Tiny, SaaS.group, Arising Ventures, and Calm Capital.

Andrew Dumont, founder and CEO of Curious, told TechCrunch that the company buys “major companies” at low prices and quickly revives them for profit margins of 20% to 30%.

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