Eventbrite has entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by Bending Spoons, the Italian technology company known for acquiring and revitalizing consumer platforms such as Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo. The all-cash transaction is said to be valued at approximately $500 million.
Under the agreement, Eventbrite shareholders will receive $4.50 per share in cash, a significant improvement over current share prices that have hovered around $2.50 since March.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, when Eventbrite will become a private company and will delist from the New York Stock Exchange.
Lucia Mazzuero, partner at EY which supported Bending Spoons with financial and tax buy-side due diligence, described the deal as a “signal of strong ambition, product vision, and confidence in the future of live experiences.”
At the end of October, Bending Spoons raised $710 million in equity at a pre-money valuation of $11 billion, secured a $2.8 billion debt package and announced the acquisition of AOL from Yahoo. In September it had announced an all-cash deal to Vimeo valued at approximately $1.38 billion.
Product Opportunities Identified
The acquisition extends a pattern of late-2025 consolidation across the events sector but stands out as one of few large scale acquisitions in event tech this year
Eventbrite’s exit from public markets may be just what the company needed to focus on its best assets without the pressure of shareholders. This approach reflects Brending Spoons’ modus operandi.
Bending Spoons openly says it “aims to hold forever, and has never sold an acquired business.” It describes its approach as an investment to “overhaul the technology, redesign the user interface, accelerate the release of new features, optimize marketing and monetization, and rearchitect the organization for improved long-term performance.”
Bending Spoons CEO and Co-Founder Luca Ferrari said the company had identified opportunities that it will explore with the Eventbrite team after closing the transaction. These include “building a dedicated messaging feature, introducing AI for easier event creation, improving searchability, and creating a system for the secondary ticket market.”
Once the transaction concludes, Eventbrite will join Brightcove, Evernote, komoot, Meetup, Remini, StreamYard, Vimeo, WeTransfer, and several others.
Eventbrite’s Fading Results
The announcement comes as Eventbrite has been working to tighten expenses and return to profitability.
Its third-quarter revenue was $71.7 million, down 8% year-over-year. Net income was $6.4 million, compared with a $3.8 million loss a year prior.
For full-year 2024, the company reported $325.1 million in revenue, essentially flat from 2023, and a net loss of $15.6 million, a 41% improvement over the prior year.
But this is a far cry from its September 2018 IPO when it priced shares at $23 with an implied valuation above $1.76 billion. Stocks ended its first day session 59% up at $36.50.
Its stock price took a hit dropping to around $20 in March 2019 when it revealed challenges in merging technology with Ticketfly which it had acquired in 2017. The stock price recovered to the same level (≈$20) in 2021 after a significant drop during the peak of the Covid pandemic, but has dropped consistently ever since 2022.
The company took a reputational and $20 million financial hit due to its late 2023 decision to eliminate its popular free tier and introduced organizer fees for free events above 25 people. It has since reversed this decision after facing backlash from its user base, now focusing on upselling a paid subscription featuring enhanced marketing tools. Its latest financial results confirm it expects revenue to take a hit from this aboutface.
Implications on Business Events
Eventbrite’s acquisition is unlikely to directly impact business events; all but the smallest and simplest events have long migrated away from the platform whose core focus is small-scale consumer events. Bending Spoons has also not signaled a specific focus on B2B for any of its acquisitions. Creating deep connections with sister company Meetup is a logical step to add a powerful interconnection between community and events.
But the implications may be wider than bringing an estranged product back into the business events market. It could be a wakeup call for event tech companies unable to grow significantly. Should Bending Spoons be successful revamping the product through its tight operational model and adding up-to-date consumer features, it may just shake up a relatively dormant event tech sector.
The opportunity to focus on secondary ticket markets suggests new owners are not looking to move to business events. But if consumer adoption regains momentum, anything is possible. Plus with AI able to assist with faster API integration, there could be an opportunity to integrate a user-friendly ticketing and registration interface with more powerful event management platforms or even directly with CRMs.
