STUB: StubHub Stock Fails to Impress in Trading Debut – Shares Slide 6.4% on IPO Day

Marketplace for ticket resales couldn’t wow investors who hit the Sell button amid an otherwise hot IPO season.

😲 Rare IPO Drop Appears

• StubHub stock SSTUB debuted for trading in New York on Wednesday. It was the latest tech IPO that sought to gauge investor appetite for new listings. But even amid a hot season for public flotations, the shares dipped.
• Not right away. StubHub initially soared when it hit the exchanges for its first deals, rising about 8% to $25.35. It ended the day at $22 a pop, sliding 6.4% from its IPO price of $23.50.
• StubHub, the marketplace for ticket resales, sold 34 million shares, raising $800 million and valuing the company at $8.1 billion based on Wednesday’s closing price. It’s not a disappointing start – back in 2020, eBay sold it to European ticket reseller Viagogo for more than $4 billion.

👀 Looking at the Numbers

• What could disappoint investors is what happens next. Now that the company is under public scrutiny, it needs to be on a level when it reports its quarterly earnings performance.
• Here’s what we have so far. Overall revenue for 2024 rose 30% to $1.8 billion. Profits? Nothing to see here – the ticketing platform lost $2.8 million in 2024.
• In 2025, revenue for the first six months was just 3% higher from the same stretch last year to $828 million. It couldn’t get in the black, either, posting a $76 million loss for the period. StubHub makes its money primarily by fees.

😍 Been a Good Year for IPO Market

• An IPO sliding below its initial price isn’t common these days. Spanning back to the CoreWeave CRWV IPO in March, investors are happily bidding up the prices for new entrants to the stock market.
• Software maker Figma FIG is another example of a successful IPO. Even though the shares are way below their debut levels now.
• Stablecoin issuer Circle CRCL also popped when it first dropped on exchanges. Mildly put. The shares rocketed higher by 168%.
• Klarna KKLAR was a win, too. The Swedish buy-now, pay-later platform didn’t really soar, more like, drifted higher, adding 15% on its first day as a public company.
• More recently, blockchain-native mortgage company Figure FFIGR listed in New York and hasn’t looked back since. Shares are up 20% from day one, factoring in an 8% Wednesday slide.