Tickets.com Sets IPO, With Target of $75 Million
Tickets.com Inc., a Newport Beach online ticket broker, will try to raise $75 million in an initial public stock offering, the company said in regulatory filings Tuesday.
Tickets.com hopes to build an online conglomerate that sells event tickets to consumers and ticket-management technology to entertainment organizations. The company has attracted much attention--and money--from the venture capital community, including $30 million in a private offering two months ago. All told, its venture capital funding totals $73 million.
The company, which in 1998 lost $57.3 million on revenue of $47.7 million, will be going up against USA Networks Inc.’s Ticketmaster Corp., the industry giant that last year had $386.6 million in revenue related to ticketing.
Last year, Tickets.com sold 5.3 million tickets online, according to regulatory filings. While Ticketmaster does not break out its online ticket sales, it has said that it sold 2 million more tickets online last year than in the previous year.
The company is headed by 37-year-old W. Thomas Gimple, who has served as president and chief executive since November 1996. Gimple, who has a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina, had been with Iwerks Entertainment Inc., a leading provider of software-based theater attractions, for more than four years.
Tickets.com has been on an acquisition binge this year, purchasing two ticketing technology companies in April and merging with Advantix Inc. in January. Since 1996, the company has bought eight companies.
The company’s venture capital backers include pop star Michael Jackson’s Jackson International LLC and IMG/Chase Sports Capital Partners, which is backed by International Management Group, the world’s largest sports marketing agency. Other investors include General Atlantic Partners LLC, Attractor, Moore Capital Management Inc., idealab Capital Partners and Bayview Investors.
Tickets.com did not say how many shares it planned to sell, or indicate a price range for the shares, making it impossible to determine the value the company. Only one insider plans to sell shares in the offering. Karen Goetz, co-founder of TicketsLive Corp., which Tickets.com acquired last April, will sell 1 million of her 5.3 million shares.
The company will use at least $21.8 million of the proceeds from the offering to repay debt as well as for working capital. Company officials declined to comment.
The filing comes at a time when Internet stocks have fallen precipitously, with the Dow Jones Internet Commerce Index down 30% from its high six weeks ago.
“This certainly isn’t the most propitious time to make a debut,” said Gail Bronson, an analyst with IPO Monitor. “The market is a little heavily weighted against Internet IPOs right now. It might be a little more strategically sound to wait for the stock market to calm down and wait through the generally expected summer lull.”
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter will be the lead underwriters of the offering, with Credit Suisse First Boston, SG Cowen and Volpe Brown Whelan & Company also managing.