Ex-Sega Exec Joins Tickets.com as CEO

Ron Bension, who quit suddenly last week as head of video game maker Sega GameWorks, took over this week as chief executive at Tickets.com Inc., the Irvine event ticket firm said Wednesday.

Bension, 47, who previously rose through the ranks of Universal Studios Inc. to head its theme-park business, takes over a firm that hasn’t posted a profit since going public in November 1999.

He replaces W. Thomas Gimple, who becomes chairman. Gimple had been co-chairman with C. Ian Sym-Smith, who relinquished the title but remains on the board.

Bension, who was fired from Universal in a management sweep, was recruited to Sega GameWorks two years ago by company Chairman Skip Paul. The firm was owned by Sega Enterprises, Universal Studios and DreamWorks SKG. Paul eventually left the company and DreamWorks pulled out.

Tickets.com, which lost $105 million on sales of $58.7 million in 2001 and lost $46 million on sales of $46.8 million through September, has found the going tough against Ticketmaster Corp., the dominant online ticket firm.

But Tickets.com has been reducing its net loss on a quarterly basis this year and is expecting to generate positive cash flow next year. The company has 450 full-time employees and 200 part-time workers.

The company’s stock, which underwent a 1-for-8 reverse split in July to boost the price and avoid being removed from Nasdaq, dropped 14 cents Wednesday to close at $2.65 a share.