Comparison shopping site NexTag has made its fifth acquisition in 15 months, buying event ticket search engine FanSnap. Unfortunately, FanSnap employees and any other common stockholders won’t get anything out of the deal, according to a source close to the transaction. Apparently the purchase price was low, and FanSnap had taken over $15 million in funding primarily from General Catalyst Partners. That means even if the investors were paid back, there’d be nothing left for common stockholders.
There were high hopes for FanSnap, which lets users search for tickets across big providers like StubHub and eBay, leading us to liken it to a Kayak for event tickets back in 2009. Heck, its backer General Catalyst was also a major investor in Kayak, and FanSnap was founded by StubHub CMO Mike Janes. But it seems that FanSnap didn’t gain enough traction, and eventually its technology that surfaced low priced event tickets became more widely available, leading to the reportedly low sum paid for the company.
The ticket search engine should do well under the NexTag umbrella, though, which can drive it traffic. By acquiring FanSnap, NexTag will become a one-stop ecommerce shop for coupons, products, entertainment experiences, and lodging. NexTag CEO Jeffrey G. Katz says “customers will be able to scoop up some of the best tickets possible to their favorite sporting or music events, find a room to stay in, and outfit the whole family in related gear.”
FanSnap’s team will relocate to Nextag’s headquarters in San Mateo, CA where they’ll join employees scooped up through NexTag’s other acquisitions. It bought real-time shopping social shopping platform ThingBuzz in October 2011, German comparison shopping site guenstiger.de GmbH in April 2011, and before that NextCoupons, and product review company Wize, Inc.
FanSnap is the leading ticket comparison-shopping site, displaying 19+ million tickets to 70,000+ events. Fans use FanSnap to shop 50+ of the largest and most trusted ticket marketplace and broker ticket sites for the best values in sports, theater and concert tickets. Partners include Ace Ticket, AllShows.com, Barry’s Tickets, Broadway.com, eBay, Gold Coast Tickets, Las Vegas Tickets, PrimeSport, RazorGator, StubHub, TicketNetwork, TicketsNow, and Tickets-for-Charity. Our detailed ticket-level search results are made possible through strategic industry partnerships and systems...
Nextag is a comparison shopping site for products, travel, and education. For merchants, service providers and individuals, Nextag acts as a sales channel. The company operates comparison shopping sites in the US (www.nextag.com), the UK (www.nextag.co.uk), France (www.nextag.fr), Germany (www.nextag.de), Italy (www.nextag.it), Spain (www.nextag.es), Canada (www.nextag.ca), Australia (www.nextag.com.au), and Japan (www.nextag.jp). NexTag is headquartered in San Mateo, California with offices in London, Tokyo and Gurgaon, India.
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA and Palo Alto, CA. For more information, please visit: http://www.generalcatalyst.com.
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