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eCommerce - Tuesday, January 15, 2008

TicketsNow Cashes Out With $265M Buy-out By Ticketmaster

This is the biggest deal we have seen in the Chicagoland tech venture scene in some time (makes Google's buyout of Feedburner seem small.) IAC's goliath Ticketmaster will pay about $265M for TicketsNow. TicketsNow is an online ticket reseller that competes with the likes of eBay's Stubhub (eBay paid a bit more at $310M). Ticketmaster has had a grudge match against StubHub, alleging that what StubHub does in scalping tickets is illegal. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Feeling the need to blow $400 on resold Hannah Montana Tix? Now Ticketmaster will make that money if you buy via Ticketsnow

Founder and CEO Mike Domek boot-strapped TicketsNow and says that the company did over $202M in revenues in 2006. So it's a bit surprising that TicketMaster didn't pay more. Perhaps the margins have been poor, or maybe revenue has slumped.

TicketsNow is a bit different than Stubhub. StubHub has individual ticket holders sell their seats on its site, whereas TicketsNow works primarily with licensed ticket brokers, who list their inventory on the TicketsNow web site and many of whom use the company’s point-of-sale software to track inventory and accounting.

TicketsNow has raised around $76M in funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Adams Street Partners, Portage Venture Partners, C&B Capital and New World Ventures.

The deal leaves big but unsold competitors TicketLiquidator and Viagogo with hot hands.

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