Ah, that's sad. Ticketmaster and "joy" do not go in the same sentence.
Lots of criticism in the comments so far. Maybe Ticketmaster is acquiring them in order to resurrect their bad reputation and improve their services. Or maybe that's just what they wrote on the checks to Eventjoy...
Really sad. They must have been very desperate.
My guess is Ticketmaster was scared and bought them out before they became a big enough target to do big damage and creep into their main territory.
Eventjoy is less than a year old, probably received funding after YC and most startups raise for 18 months of runway which means unless something went terribly wrong they should still have a few months of runway before they raised their Series A. It's a perfect time to buy a company that's growing because after each round you have to pay that much more.
If Ticketmaster thought they were going to die, they would have let them.
P.S. I've also learned that there are usually two types of founder scenarios. 1.) the founders that are really passionate about a subject and have a lot of domain knowledge and they've made it their life goal to solve the problem they're going after. 2.) the founders found a niche or area that they believe they can solve but they aren't considering it their life's work. Yes there are tons of variations and exceptions but that's what I've seen the few years I've been around startups.
Well, I guess Eventjoy will now be EventPloy, because the only company I think worse than Ticketbastard is Comcast...or maybe Congress.
Ideas on what kind of price tag, if any?
RIP
That's pretty disgusting. So much for market disruption, eh?
Maybe they received an offer they couldn't refuse.
Acquihire?
I look forward to seeing them on http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ when they discontinue their service.
Ticketmaster is easily regarded as the most evil thing to happen to concerts. That sucks.