Ticketmaster Entertainment suffered an earnings drop during the recent quarter, according to financial disclosures issued Monday.
For the three-month period ending September 30th, the company posted an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization) figure of $57.3 million, down 16 percent from the year-ago period. Various royalty expenses, severance charges, and other costs were blamed.
The revenue total was more positive. During the period, Ticketmaster racked revenues of $339.2 million, a 16 percent jump boosted by the acquisitions of both TicketsNow and Paciolan and per-ticket gains. Looking forward, the company expressed uncertainty towards future entertainment attendance. “While we are pleased to report solid revenue growth for the quarter and year-to-date, the global macro-economic environment is certainly challenging and its impact on live entertainment in the near-term difficult to predict,” said Sean Moriarty, chief executive officer of Ticketmaster and president of Ticketmaster Entertainment.
The report does not include Front Line Entertainment, of which Ticketmaster now carries a controlling stake. Instead, the results factor a minority position carried in the previous quarter. Separately, Ticketmaster indicated that it would drop so-called “convenience fees” in future experiments, a consumer-friendly nod. Shares of TKTM increased 1.17 percent to $7.80 during Monday trading, though the earnings announcement followed the closing bell.
Report by news analyst Alexandra Osorio.
