Events.com has acquired the assets of ticketing company Brown Paper Tickets (BPT).
The Events.com platform provides a range of software and services through several brands to aid event discovery, ticketing, sponsorship, marketing and management.
It was recently revealed that Brown Paper Tickets still owed millions of dollars to customers and event producers, even after a settlement with the Washington State Attorney General.
Events.com said that in advance of the acquisition, it helped BPT in its efforts to refund ticket-holders and assist event organisers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the release, Events.com said: “To accelerate BPT’s recovery and provide event customers with cash refunds rather than credits that much of the industry has issued, Events.com will continue to advance additional payments to BPT, enabling them to accelerate their payouts.”
The release also said that the pandemic had hit BPT particularly hard, and that Events.com had helped the company to pay event organisers over $39m (£34m/€39m) since January 2020, and to process refunds and payments worth tens of thousands of dollars.
BPT will continue to process all remaining refunds and payments to customers impacted by delayed payments.
Mitch Thrower, Events.com founder and chief executive, said: “We’re proud to partner with Brown Paper Tickets and support the company’s decision to refund ticket holders, event organisers, venues, and entertainment partners affected by industry-wide shutdowns and the aftermath of the pandemic.
“It’s not only the right thing to do but a strong affirmation of one of Events.com’s core principles – to help event organisers and attendees. We truly are happy and excited to support Brown Paper Tickets and its customers, providing them with a solid reset with strong capital backing to help them get back on their feet. We are proud to bring the BPT team into the Events.com family and work with them on innovative new products and services.”
Stephen Partridge, president, chief operating officer and founder of Events.com, added: “It is with great pleasure that Events.com has developed a special price-matching program for all current and prior BPT customers, benefiting from the standard Events.com immediate payments program.
“As part of our strategy, we offer traditional ticketing companies like BPT access to Events.com’s platform that redefines the event industry. We are in many ways more like partners with event technology companies than we are direct competitors with them. The team at Events.com is excited about the opportunity to improve BPT’s system and add more value for their clients. We also welcome organisers who would like to switch to the Events.com platform.”