Eventbrite, Inc. (EB) Accused of Inflating IPO Price

According to the complaint against the company for alleged violations of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933 pursuant to the company's September 2018 initial public offering ("IPO"), Eventbrite, Inc. (EB) acquired Ticketfly, LLC from Pandora Media for $201.1 million in September 2017. In September 2018, Eventbrite held its IPO by offering its stock at $23.00 per share and generating $264.5 million in net proceeds. However, unbeknownst to investors, the IPO was based on misleading offering documents. In particular, Eventbrite failed to disclose the negative impact of the Ticketfly acquisition. On March 7, 2019, Eventbrite revealed that integrating Ticketfly was taking longer than expected and as a result issued a lower guidance for the first quarter of 2019. On this news, Eventbrite’s share price plummeted $7.96 per share, or over 24%, to close at $24.46 per share on March 8, 2019. On May 1, 2019, Eventbrite once again issued lower than expected guidance for the second quarter of 2019, due, in large part, to the slower than anticipated migration of Ticketfly creators. On this news, Eventbrite's stock declined over 27% to close at $17.60 per share on May 2, 2019. On June 3, 2019, Eventbrite's stock closed at $15.85—over 30% below the IPO price.