Eric Baker (businessman)

Last updated

Eric Baker
Born
Eric H. Baker

May 1973 (age 52)
Los Angeles, California, US
Education Harvard College
Stanford Business School
Known forFounder and CEO, Viagogo
Co-founder, StubHub

Eric H. Baker (born May 1973) is an American businessman, the founder and CEO of Viagogo, and co-founder of StubHub.

Contents

Early life

Baker was born in May 1973. [1] He was born and grew up in Los Angeles.[ clarification needed ] [2] [3] Baker graduated from Harvard College in 1995, and received an MBA from Stanford Business School in 2001. [4]

Career

Baker worked for McKinsey & Company for two years, and then Bain Capital, a private equity firm in Boston. [4] [3]

StubHub

A year after enrolling at Stanford, Baker co-founded StubHub in 2000 with fellow classmate Jeff Fluhr.The idea came when Baker saw a Broadway play and struggled to buy secondhand tickets. He remembered the need for a more efficient way to buy these tickets and developed the idea during a Stanford competition. [5] [3] Baker and Fluhr withdrew from the competition after being chosen as finalists due to concerns that someone might take their idea. [3] [2] The two began to network with potential investors in the music and sports industries. By March 2000, the company was incorporated and five months later, the duo had raised $600,000 in seed funding. [6] While Fluhr dropped out of Stanford to focus on StubHub full-time, Baker opted not to immediately join the company. [7] While he was completing his MBA, the first version of the website launched without him in October 2000. [8] He rejoined StubHub as its president in 2001. [9] However, Baker and Fluhr clashed on the direction of the company and Baker was fired from StubHub in 2004. [7] StubHub was sold to eBay in January 2007 for $310 million in cash. [10] [11]

In 2006, Baker founded Viagogo, and has been its CEO since then. [9] He owns Viagogo through a company called Pugnacious Endeavors, which is based in Delaware. [2] [12] In 2020, Viagogo completed its acquisition of StubHub out of Ebay, with the combined company rebranding as StubHub and Baker as CEO. [7]

In May 2018, BBC News reported that the UK Government's digital minister advised that consumers should not use Viagogo, one of the big four secondary ticket sites. Margot James said: “Don’t choose Viagogo - they are the worst”. [13]

In August 2018, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority took Viagogo to the High Court for breaking the law; Baker did not issue any comment or statement. The company reached a resolution with the CMA in November 2018. [14]

In January 2019, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Eric Baker risked jail over failure to properly protect customers. [15]

References

  1. ↑ "CONSOLIDATED INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED - Officers (free information from Companies House)". Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "Viagogo: who runs it and who owns it? | Money". The Guardian. March 24, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Eric Baker: Respectable face of ticket touting". Telegraph. January 12, 2008. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Eric Baker – Founder and CEO, Viagogo.com – MusicTank". Musictank.co.uk. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  5. ↑ Steele, Anne (November 29, 2019). "The Tale Behind StubHub's Sale: How Eric Baker Bought Back the Ticket Seller". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
  6. ↑ Eng, Dinah (July 23, 2012). "StubHub: Anatomy of a game-changing idea". CNN. Fortune. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 Kirsch, Noah. "The Worst Deal Ever: The Inside Story Of The Epically Bad Decision By StubHub's Cofounder To Buy His Company Back". Forbes. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  8. ↑ Warner, Andrew (October 29, 2009). "How Questioning Basic Assumptions Made StubHub A $310 Million Company - With Jeffrey Fluhr". Business Podcast for Startups. Mixergy. Retrieved June 16, 2025.
  9. 1 2 "Eric H. Baker: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  10. ↑ "eBay to buy ticketer StubHub for $310 million". Reuters. August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  11. ↑ Vara, Vauhini; Berman, Dennis K.; Adams, Russell (January 11, 2007). "EBay-StubHub Deal a Boon to Start-Ups". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  12. ↑ "Viagogo CEO Eric Baker throws down $23.5 million cash in the Beverly Hills Flats". Dirt. October 9, 2018.
  13. ↑ Johnston, Chris (May 30, 2018). "Don't buy tickets from Viagogo, minister warns". BBC News. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Viagogo ordered to clean up ticket sales". BBC News. November 27, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  15. ↑ Davies, Rob (January 24, 2019). "Viagogo: directors risk jail over failure to properly protect customers" – via www.theguardian.com.


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