TicketsNow to layoff more than 60 from Illinois HQ

Trouble has hit the offices of nation’s second-largest secondary ticket company TicketsNow with the news that the company is cutting 62 jobs from its Illinois headquarters.

The cuts are primarily from the company’s call center, and they among the 300 proposed by parent company Ticketmaster over the summer as part of $35 million in operational savings Ticketmaster is seeking.

Ticketmaster is looking to consolidate its call center at a Texas-based facility, but it is not closing down the TicketsNow headquarters. Speculation about the layoffs began circulating late last week when as many as 150 jobs were believed to be on the chopping block. Another 26 people will be reassigned in the Illinois office to help improve efficiency, according to published reports.

News of the layoffs has done little to improve Ticketmaster’s stock (symbol: TKTM), which was trading below $9.30 early today, October 27, down from a high of $27 per share in late August when the stock began trading on Nasdaq. See ticker below.

Since the beginning of the year, Ticketmaster has been acquiring companies, such as TicketsNow and ticketing solutions provider Paciolan, in an effort to grow and stave off the loss of its largest client, Live Nation, which is launching its own ticket operation next year. Ticketmaster also stands to lose its second-largest client, venue operator SMG, by 2010, so it decided to change its name to Ticketmaster Entertainment and make a move into Live Nation’s playing field by acquiring Front Line Management, headed by industry heavyweight Irving Azoff, who will assume the CEO position at Ticketmaster Entertainment.