Ticketmaster to lay off 300 workers worldwide
Ticketmaster said Tuesday that it would fire about 5% of its global workforce as part of a previously announced cost-reduction plan.
The West Hollywood ticket vendor said about 300 jobs would be eliminated. The company has about 6,000 full-time and part-time employees.
In August, Ticketmaster said it would reduce operating expenses by about $35 million as it integrated two companies -- ticketing technology maker Paciolan and ticket reseller TicketsNow -- that it acquired earlier this year.
The firings come at a challenging time. Concert promoter Live Nation Inc. -- Ticketmaster’s biggest client -- is launching its own ticketing service next year. The company, which accounted for 17% of Ticketmaster’s revenue last year, also lured away Ticketmaster’s next-biggest customer, SMG, last month.
Ticketmaster also is playing catch-up in the secondary ticketing market by acquiring TicketsNow after resale sites gained consumer attention.
Ticketmaster, long the largest ticket vendor, sold 141 million tickets for more than $8.3 billion last year.
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