Online auctioneer eBay Inc. plans to buy sports ticket reseller StubHub for around $310 million in cash, confirming an earlier report that the deal was imminent. The pending acquisition is expected to close before the end of March.
EBay wasn't saying Wednesday how the all-cash purchase will impact its financials. It will do so on Jan. 24, when it reports its fourth-quarter financials.
Aside from any potential benefit to eBay, the acquisition also serves as further validation of online ticket sellers, which have been among the fastest growing online industries.
StubHub generated about $100 million in sales in 2006 on $400 million gross ticket sales, according to spokesperson Sean Pate.
StubHub had been shopped around since October 2005, and eBay was considered by insiders as the leading candidate to buy the company. In a curious twist, eBay tried to buy StubHub for $20 million in 2002, when the company was two-years-old. But talks fell apart.
EBay has its own ticket marketplace as well. But it's unclear just how robust it is and what impact the StubHub purchase will have on it.
If traffic is any measurement, however, StubHub's business is far more active than eBay's.
StubHub saw 2.1 million unique visitors and generated 22.3 million page views in August, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. EBay's ticket section saw 309,000 unique visitors and 875,000 page views.
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