Bending Spoons Buys Eventbrite For $500 Million (morningbrew.com) 23
Longtime Slashdot reader williamyf writes: The Italian company Bending Spoons seems to be on an acquisitions spree. Their recent acquisitions of AOL and Vimeo are not yet finalized, yet on Dec. 2 they announced they are buying Eventbrite, a company specializing in publicizing and organizing local events, for just half a milliard USD. Bending Spoons' portfolio also includes other companies like Evernote and WeTransfer. Further reading: Private Equity Hipsters Are Coming For Your Favorite Apps (2024)
Private Equity Kiss of Death (Score:4)
enshittify the product, saddle it with debt, strip of parts
Re: (Score:2)
enshittify the product, saddle it with debt, strip of parts
Private equity and betting against success (hedging) should be shit out of the asshole of Capitalism and flushed forever.
Re: (Score:2)
Numbers (Score:4, Informative)
I see "for just half a milliard USD" - notice that this is the European milliard notation, which is 1000 million.
Everything to confuse...
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Yeah, never heard of a millard.
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In the UK it might at some time have meant a million squared.
Linguistic semantic trap.
Re:Numbers (Score:5, Informative)
No, it's never meant that.
In the UK, million has always meant 10^6. Milliard has always meant 10^9, but has fallen out of favor. Billion used to mean 10^12, but now usually means 10^9. Billiard has always meant 10^15, Trillion used to mean 10^18, and now usually means 10^12.
Re: (Score:2)
Milliard is still the only/universal/modern way of saying 10^9 in French and several other languages. The word "billion" does still mean 10^12 in long scale languages/countries. A bunch of other languages/countries use the long scale too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I see "for just half a milliard USD" - notice that this is the European milliard notation, which is 1000 million.
Everything to confuse...
If you are confused, take a dictionary... The Oxford, Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, and dictionary.com dictionaries would like to have a word with you, and that word is the ENGLISH word Milliard:
Oxford:
https://www.oed.com/dictionary... [oed.com]
Merriam Webster:
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
Cambridge:
https://dictionary.cambridge.o... [cambridge.org]
Dictionary.com:
https://www.dictionary.com/bro... [dictionary.com]
Also, the acquiring company is italian, and there the word for 109 is "Millardo"
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It's actually less confusing as written. "Milliard" always means 10^9, unambiguously, while "billion" can mean either 10^9 or 10^12 depending on language/country.
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Me, I'm from Cobol, flying through space along with my rag-tag fugitive fleet. I'm still confused by your use of years. It's yahrens for gods sake!
OK (Score:5, Funny)
Gee, I hope they don't do anything untoward with the company. Without Eventbrite, how else will people find events that fuel their passions and enrich their lives...
well this sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: well this sucks (Score:2)
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Eventbrite was an good way for small music venues to sell tickets electronically without have to deal with ticketbastard or axs. Easy to use and low fees for customers. For $500m, there's no way that persists
Next week we'll hear about a "strategic partnership" between Bending Spoons and Ticketbastard while regulators pretend to be shocked, shocked I tell you about it.
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Try ticketstripe.
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Or putting flyers up around town and then paying in good old time tested hard cash at the door.
Re:well this sucks (Score:5, Informative)
IMHO Yes and no....Online ticket sales ok, but with a hefty 20% mark-up. I just pulled two random events in my area $20 face value, plus $5.55 for Eventbrite fee. Another was $40 ticket price, plus $8.85 Eventbrite fee.
Next, the Eventbrite search is abysmal. Search for events, put in a date time range, geo location, and type (Theater, music, comedy) and it's a random output of sponsored slop, incorrect matches (dates waay out of the range, etc) and even missing options that are actually using Eventbrite for tickets. You have to know the QR code/URL in advance but it won't show in search.
Anyhoo, I don't know what bending spoons is or does, but their name is too cutesy to take seriously. My guess is that they will make Eventbrite worse ("Citysearch anyone....?) and the only question is how soon a competitor will take their place. Agreed I really hope it's not Ticketmaster...the worst of the worst
Reduced competition (Score:2)
Bending Spoons now owns both Meetup and Eventbrite. I'm surprised it didn't raise an antitrust red flag.