Deals
Kevin Durant and Utah Jazz Billionaire Get Behind SeatGeek
- Utah Jazz majority owner Ryan Smith also investing in PIPE
- Deal gives the combined entity a $1.4 billion enterprise value
This article is for subscribers only.
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant and Qualtrics International Inc. co-founder Ryan Smith, the billionaire majority-owner of the Utah Jazz, are among investors backing ticketing platform SeatGeek’s merger with blank-check firm RedBall Acquisition Corp.
Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures and Smith have agreed to invest in the deal alongside institutional investors including venture capital firm Accel, an existing backer of SeatGeek, according to a statement Wednesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. The transaction, which includes $100 million private investment in public equity, or PIPE, gives the combined entity a roughly $1.35 billion enterprise value.