Tickets.com Loses Nearly $55 Million After Charges

Costa Mesa online ticketer Tickets.com Inc., its balance sheet laden with one-time acquisition and marketing costs, said Wednesday it lost $54.9 million for the second quarter, or 94 cents a share.

In last year’s second quarter, when it was still a private company, it lost $17.3 million, or $1.52 a share.

Without the special charges, Tickets.com posted an $18.8-million loss, meeting analysts’ expectations of a per-share loss of 32 cents. By the same yardstick, the company lost $11.9 million, or $1.05 a share, in last year’s second quarter.

The company’s revenue grew 16% to $14.7 million. Though a majority of the money still is derived from sales over the telephone and at retail outlets, Tickets.com is doing a growing proportion of its business on the Internet, executives said.

More than one-third of its second-quarter revenue came from software sales and online ticketing. The company recently announced deals to provide online box-office services to university campuses and Major League Baseball.

Persistent losses and ongoing litigation with industry leader Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch Inc. in Pasadena, however, have damaged Tickets.com with investors. The company’s stock lost 13 cents Wednesday to close at $3.13, well off its high of $32 set on its first day of trading last November.