Ticketmaster is to combine its North America and International teams into one global entity, with Jared Smith (pictured) to become chairman of the merged operation.
Smith, previously president of Ticketmaster, becomes global chairman. Smith has been with the company since 2003, where he served as chief operating officer before being promoted to the top role in 2012.
Mark Yovich, Ticketmaster’s president of International, has been elevated to become the Live Nation-owned company’s president of global business. Yovich held his former role since 2011 and formerly served as executive vice-president and general manager of ecommerce international.
In addition, the firm’s president of North America, Amy Howe, has been appointed as the new global chief operating officer. Howe previously worked as Ticketmaster North America’s chief strategy officer and has been chief operating officer and president since 2019.
Ticketmaster and its parent company, which currently operates in 32 countries, has made international expansion a known priority, with 115 million tickets delivered internationally in 2019.
In a release for its 2019 full-year earnings, the company said there is “tremendous opportunity for continued growth on a global basis, particularly in the 15 markets where we promote concerts but do not yet have a substantial ticketing operation.”
In February, Ticketmaster made a major international move with the expansion of its business into Asia, via new offices in Singapore and its acquisition of Taiwan’s Tixcraft.
The earnings reported continued: “Ticketmaster’s recent entry into both the Taiwan and Singapore markets highlights this international expansion opportunity, building on our concerts position in these markets, and growing our ticketing presence to seven countries in Asia as we continue to build out our flywheel across more of our markets.”
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Live Nation’s 2020 financial results for the three months to end of June showed that its global ticketing operation posted negative revenue in the quarter, due to customer refunds.
Live Nation chief executive and president, Michael Rapino, said earlier this month that he was feeling positive about the prospects moving into 2021.
He said: “We believe long-term, regardless of what quarter we exactly scale [concerts back to the size they were], the business will be stronger than ever – with the creative push by all these artists who need to get on the road to drive their new music.”
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