StubHub posted mounting losses in the first half of 2025 despite revenue growth ahead of its planned initial public offering in New York.
The company’s attributable net loss more than doubled to $111.8 million, or $1.84 per share, for the six months ended June 30, wider by 123% from $50.2 million, or $0.82 per share, a year earlier.
Revenue, however, jumped by about 3% YoY to $827.9 million from $803.5 million, according to its updated prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week (August 26).
For the second quarter alone, net loss attributable to shareholders ballooned 271% YoY to $75.9 million from $20.5 million. Diluted loss per share grew to $1.25 from $0.34.
Revenue in Q2 2025 slipped 3% YoY to $430.3 million from $443.3 million.
The widening losses stem mainly from StubHub’s bigger costs and expenses, which widened to $776 million in H1 2025 from $750.4 million in H1 2024. In Q2 2025, costs and expenses grew to $405.2 million from $389.4 million.
Despite the drop in revenue, StubHub’s gross merchandise sales, which include the total value paid by customers for ticket purchases, climbed 11% to $4.38 billion in H1 2025 from $3.94 billion.
In 2024, the company facilitated the sale of over 40 million tickets on its platform for more than 1 million sellers. Since its launch in 2000, customers have purchased more than 450 tickets through its marketplace.
Founded by CEO Eric Baker, StubHub claims to operate “the largest global secondary ticketing marketplace for live events.” Its platform connects buyers and sellers of tickets to sports events, concerts and theater shows, among other events.
Baker left the company before eBay acquired it for $310 million in 2007. He then launched European competitor viagogo, which completed a $4.05 billion acquisition of StubHub in 2020, reuniting Baker with StubHub.
According to the latest filing, Baker holds over 2.9 million class A shares in the company, accounting for a 5.2% stake. However, his class B shares carry 100-to-1 voting rights, giving him 90.4% of total voting power before the IPO.
The company plans to list shares on the NYSE under ticker symbol STUB. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are lead underwriters of the IPO, also serving as joint book-running managers.
StubHub plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to repay its existing debts outstanding under its term loan credit facilities. The company’s term loan credit facilities will mature in 2030. As of March 31, it had $2.4 billion outstanding under its term loan credit facilities and interest rates of 9.07% on its 2024 USD term loan, and 7.36% on its 2024 Euro term loan.
The latest filing marks StubHub’s second updated IPO prospectus in a month. Its path to an IPO has been long-awaited. The company initially explored going public via a direct listing in 2022, when Bloomberg reported that the IPO could have valued the company at more than $13 billion.
In 2024, the company made another attempt to go public amid a surge in concert ticket sales driven by Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. The plan, however, failed to materialize due to unfavorable market conditions.
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