Eric Baker (businessman)

Last updated

Eric Baker
Born
Eric H. Baker

May 1973 (age 50–51)
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]

Baker co-founded StubHub in 2000, with fellow Stanford classmate Jeff Fluhr, initially as part of a Stanford competition from which they withdrew after being chosen as finalists due to concerns that someone might take their idea. [3] [2] While Fluhr dropped out of Stanford to focus on StubHub full-time, Baker opted to not immediately join the company. [5] While he was completing his MBA, the site launched without him in October 2000. He rejoined StubHub as its president in 2001. [6] However, Baker and Fluhr clashed on the direction of the company and Baker was fired from StubHub in 2004. [5] StubHub was sold to eBay in 2007 for $310 million. [3] [7]

In 2006, Baker founded Viagogo, and has been its CEO since then. [6] He owns Viagogo through a company called Pugnacious Endeavors, which is based in Delaware. [2] [8] In 2020, Viagogo completed it's acquisition of StubHub out of Ebay, with the combined company rebranding as StubHub and Baker as CEO. [5]

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”. [9]

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. [10]

In January 2019, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Eric Baker risked jail over failure to properly protect customers. [11]

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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. 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.
  6. 1 2 "Eric H. Baker: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  7. ↑ "The Tale Behind StubHub's Sale: How Eric Baker Bought Back the Ticket Seller". Wall Street Journal. November 29, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Viagogo CEO Eric Baker throws down $23.5 million cash in the Beverly Hills Flats". Dirt. October 9, 2018.
  9. ↑ Johnston, Chris (May 30, 2018). "Don't buy tickets from Viagogo, minister warns". BBC News. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Viagogo ordered to clean up ticket sales". BBC News. November 27, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  11. ↑ Davies, Rob (January 24, 2019). "Viagogo: directors risk jail over failure to properly protect customers" – via www.theguardian.com.
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