Bending Spoons Buys Eventbrite in $500M Deal A New Era Begins
Once a poster child of the events economy, Eventbrite finds a rescue route as Bending Spoons bets on restructuring and renewed momentum.
Once one of the bright hopes of the digital events economy, Eventbrite, founded in 2006, helped thousands of creators, organizers, and music and culture venues manage events, ticketing, and discovery worldwide. Its early rapid expansion and user-friendly model helped it flourish in a world hungry for live experiences.
But in recent years, growth plateaued, and according to audited financials, Eventbrite’s annual revenue remained flat at around $325 million for both 2023 and 2024. TechCrunch Competition, shifting consumer habits, rising fees, and the broader economic pressures on entertainment and events took a toll, leaving the once soaring company in a state of stagnation.
The disconnect between its 2018 public valuation of $1.76 billion and its latest business performance had set the stage for a reckoning.
What Bending Spoons Is Paying And What Shareholders Get
On December 2, 2025, Eventbrite announced that it had entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by Bending Spoons in an all-cash transaction valued at roughly $500 million. Under the terms, shareholders will receive $4.50 per share in cash, an 82 percent premium over the company’s 60-day volume-weighted average trading price.
Once the deal closes, expected in the first half of 2026 after required regulatory and shareholder approvals, Eventbrite will revert to a privately held company, shedding its public listing.
Bending Spoons’ bid price corresponds to about 1.7 times Eventbrite’s trailing 12-month revenue, a modest multiple by high-growth tech standards but one that reflects a deeper calculation.
Why Bending Spoons Believes Eventbrite Can Be Revived
Bending Spoons has built a reputation for buying recognisable but stagnating tech platforms and attempting to turn them around, as the company owns apps and services like Evernote, WeTransfer, Meetup, Vimeo, and more.
The acquisition suggests that Bending Spoons sees untapped potential in Eventbrite’s brand recognition, global footprint, and role as a ticketing infrastructure for live events and experiences. In their press release, Bending Spoons’ CEO emphasised plans to accelerate innovation and strengthen Eventbrite’s tools and resources to bring shared live experiences to more people for years to come.
Specifically, the company has flagged a few priorities by adding a dedicated messaging feature, introducing AI-powered tools to ease event creation and management, improving searchability across events, and possibly building a secondary ticket market.
This strategic vision reflects a bet that the experience economy still has legs, especially if underlying tools can be modernised, monetisation is improved, and user engagement is also re-energised.
What This Means for Users, Creators and the Events Ecosystem
For event organisers, the change in ownership could be a breath of fresh air or a cause for caution. Bending Spoons’ track record shows a willingness to cut costs, restructure teams, and often implement significant changes post-acquisition.
Potential positives include improved tools, better user interface, streamlined ticketing, AI support for event promotion, and enhanced platform stability backed by new investment. These could help creators and organizers manage events with less friction and perhaps reach a wider audience.
On the flip side, users may face increased ticketing fees or pricing restructuring if Bending Spoons pursues the same cost-cutting and monetising strategy that it has employed elsewhere, which is a possibility that has already stirred concern among some critics.
Competitors in the ticketing and event tech space may also feel pressure, as platforms that were once niche or regional may now need to prepare for a revitalised Eventbrite, potentially with greater global reach, new features, and deeper pockets behind it.
The Broader Trend
The Eventbrite acquisition is emblematic of a broader shift in how some tech firms operate today, as long-term owners focused on steady profitability, product consolidation, and incremental improvement. Bending Spoons is arguably among the most aggressive proponents of this model.
This strategy appeals for several reasons, as many previously hyped tech companies now trade at valuations that are far below their peak, making them cheaper acquisitions, and there’s often a base of dedicated users or inherent value in brand recognition, and with careful restructuring and feature investments, these platforms can be repositioned for steady revenue.
If successful, Bending Spoons’ approach could influence other investors to follow suit, showing a shift in the tech ecosystem from fast-exit venture models to long-term operational stewardship. For companies like Eventbrite that stumbled after early growth, this could become a lifeline.
What to Watch in the Months Ahead
The acquisition still needs to clear regulatory approvals and win shareholder support and if all goes well, the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026.
Once it is closed, early signals will hold significance. A key indicator will be how well Eventbrite adapts to changing trends in live events, and whether it can handle hybrid formats, integrate with emerging technologies, and respond to consumer demand for experiences that are flexible, discoverable, and easy to book.
Finally, the market reaction could set a precedent, as if Eventbrite thrives under its new ownership, then other stalled tech firms may find themselves targets for similar takeovers, changing the tech landscape into one defined less by boom-and-bust valuations and more by carefully managed and long-term platforms.
Why This Deal Matters
In a tech industry often driven by rapid growth, speculative valuations and venture-backed exits, the acquisition of Eventbrite by Bending Spoons stands out as a different kind of turning point, i.e. where long-term stewardship has replaced short-term hype.
In the context of Eventbrite, it could be the second chance the company needs to reclaim relevance in the events world, and for Bending Spoons, this represents an opportunity to transform a global brand into a profitable, sustainable business once more. For the broader sector, it highlights a potential shift in how digital companies are valued, managed and reinvented.
In the coming months, as the deal closes and changes roll out, the quiet work behind the headlines may matter more than any flashy announcement, and if Bending Spoons does deliver on its promises of a cleaner platform, smarter features, and revived user trust, then this acquisition could become a blueprint for how to resurrect once-loved tech brands into a post-boom world.
