Companies are facing financial pressure due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and Eventbrite is no exception. They had a liquidity crisis which caused more than a 60% drop in their share price since Feb 21st. On top of this, the company has also been losing money the past couple years consecutively.
On Wednesday, Eventbrite announced that they are laying off 45% of their staff. Most of the layoffs will come from the music division. This will impact roughly 450 employees from both the San Francisco and Nashville offices. The cuts will reduce the company’s annual expenses by roughly $100 million.
In previous years, Eventbrite had lost $40 million a year in both 2016 and 2017. The number increased to $64 million in losses in 2018, and $68.7 million in 2019. The losses were driven by spikes in costs across product development, sales and marketing, and administration.
Eventbrite gave the following statement to Billboard:
“As a company whose mission is to bring the world together through live experiences, Eventbrite has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic, alongside the entire live events industry.
To ensure the long-term durability of our mission, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our global workforce by 45 percent. This is a harsh reality to face and we are saddened to see many of our team members depart the company. We are committed to taking care of impacted employees during this already difficult time. In addition to severance, we are providing extended health benefits and dedicated job replacement support.
This is a challenging time for communities all over the world and while we can’t predict when the pandemic will pass, we are committed to providing a strong platform to help creators rebuild their businesses and enable the return of live events when it’s once again safe to gather.”
As mentioned by Eventbrite, the entire industry is impacted. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising if more layoffs are announced by other companies. Hopefully these companies can resume business soon after this all blows over.
