Photo Credit: Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster cut 8% of its global staff, or around 350 employees, in its engineering, product, and design divisions. The company also cut contractors.
Ticketmaster has cut 8% of its global staff this week, according to a new report from Pollstar. The cuts effect approximately 350 employees across 25 countries, primarily in its engineering, product, and design divisions, as well as reducing its contractors. Notably, the company’s executive leadership team has not changed.
“The purpose of [these cuts] is stronger prioritization, especially in engineering, product, and design,” said Saumil Mehta, Ticketmaster Global President, who joined the company last October.
“That comes with flattening layers, consolidating ownership, changing how teams are structured, and ensuring that we put more energy behind specific initiatives. We’re going to keep investing in specific areas so that we can actually achieve the vision we laid out.”
Mehta presented his “vision” for Ticketmaster’s future on April 15 during a keynote address at the Pollstar Live! conference. There, he explained the importance of Ticketmaster “meeting fans where they are,” and optimizing the checkout process via new technologies like AI.
“What I learned over the last 10 years, which I’m trying to apply to Ticketmaster, is how to engage with commerce at scale, how to move billions—tens of billions, hundreds of billions—all over the world between buyers and sellers, how to fight bad actors, fraud […] and, most importantly, how to take a technology-first approach to problem solving, especially in the age of AI,” he said during his presentation.
Mehta was formerly the Chief Product Officer and Head of Business Org at Square, whose holdings include the likes of TIDAL, Cash App, Afterpay, Bitkey, and Spiral.
News of the job cuts comes just after Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, posted its Q1 earnings. The report showed robust year-over-year growth, almost on par with its record-setting Q1 2024, with revenues increasing by 10% to $765 million. Gross ticket value rose 15% to $17 billion across 138 million fee-bearing tickets.
“To me, the strong performance reflects the past, and this is about what we are doing to set ourselves up for the earnings report 12 months from now, 18 months from now, 24 months from now,” said Mehta, asserting that the job cuts were about focusing on future growth. “The thinking is, let’s do this so we are well-positioned for two years down the road, one year down the road, or 18 months down the road.”
