Vivid Seats Extends Reach Into Japan With Wavedash Acquisition

Online ticket marketplace Vivid Seats has extended its reach into Japan with its acquisition of Wavedash.

Wavedash, also known as WD Holdings, is an online ticket marketplace headquartered in Tokyo, according to the press release.

Vivid Seats has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the firm for about $61 million in cash, the release said. Subject to regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions, the deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

“Wavedash is the market leader in the Japanese secondary ticketing market with a large and growing customer network supported by robust technology and compliance capabilities,” Vivid Seats CEO Stan Chia said in the release. “We are excited to grow our TAM [total addressable market] by expanding internationally with a market leading business.”

When the deal is completed, Wavedash will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivid Seats, according to the press release.

The subsidiary will add to the Vivid Seats technology platform that already handles millions of buyers, hundreds of thousands of events per year, and thousands of ticket sellers, the release said. The marketplace focuses on connecting fans to live events, artists and teams.

“With approximately $35 million of revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, and accretive EBITDA margins, we are excited about the strategic and financial impact Wavedash will bring,” Vivid Seats Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Fey said in the release.

This news comes at a time when people continue to return to live events like concerts and sporting events after the pandemic.

It was reported in April that one of Vivid Seats’ competitors, SeatGeek, had filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO) and expects its own revenue to top $500 million this year.

SeatGeek raised $238 million from private investors in August 2022 after canceling its plans to go public at that time. The fundraise valued the company at around $1.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

In another recent move in the space, PayPal joined forces with Live Nation in April to become Ticketmaster’s preferred payments partner, enabling fans to buy tickets via PayPal, Venmo and the company’s Pay Later products.