Ticketmaster Hires Square Veteran as Global President to Lead AI Transformation

Ticketmaster is entering 1 of the astir consequential chapters successful its past — and it’s doing truthful nether caller leadership.

Effective Nov. 1, Saumil Mehta volition presume the relation of planetary president astatine Ticketmaster, reporting straight to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino.

The determination marks a generational enactment displacement astatine the planetary ticketing powerhouse which has spent the past twelvemonth navigating mounting ineligible challenges from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Mehta, a longtime merchandise innovator and erstwhile main merchandise serviceman and caput of concern org astatine Square, succeeds Mark Yovich, who has led Ticketmaster since 2020 and present moves into a caller relation arsenic chairman, focused connected the company’s semipermanent strategy and planetary growth. The prosecute is the latest illustration of Rapino’s effort to triage the company’s ineligible problems truthful that enactment tin absorption connected big-picture exertion goals and gathering promoter and user tools astir AI technological advances.

“Ticketmaster is an unthinkable concern that serves arsenic the world’s portal to the champion unrecorded entertainment,” Mehta said successful a statement. “The existent accidental lies successful however we germinate the acquisition — gathering smarter and much intuitive ways for fans to link with the unrecorded experiences that substance truthful overmuch to them.”

Mehta’s assignment reflects a strategical displacement toward exertion enactment astatine a clip erstwhile the company’s systems — some integer and structural — are nether a microscope.

Before joining Ticketmaster, Mehta spent 9 years astatine Square, helping physique and standard products utilized by millions of tiny businesses worldwide. He besides founded the selling automation startup LocBox, which was acquired by Square successful 2015. Over the past six months, Mehta has served arsenic an advisor and capitalist successful respective AI startups — acquisition helium present plans to bring straight into Ticketmaster’s adjacent phase.

Under his leadership, the institution plans to accelerate its AI transformation, with applications ranging from venue absorption and fraud detection to lawsuit personalization, with an purpose to reinvent however fans discover, acquisition and acquisition unrecorded events.

“Saumil brings a caller position and heavy merchandise and exertion expertise that volition assistance america physique connected that momentum,” Rapino said.

Yovich, who replaced longtime CEO Jared Smith successful 2020 and steered Ticketmaster done the pandemic’s aftermath and planetary enlargement into caller markets, volition proceed to play a cardinal relation arsenic chairman, focusing connected planetary maturation and innovation.

The enactment alteration comes arsenic Ticketmaster faces the astir assertive regulatory scrutiny successful its five-decade history. In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice, joined by 30 authorities attorneys general, filed a landmark antitrust suit accusing Live Nation Entertainment — Ticketmaster’s genitor institution — of monopolizing the unrecorded performance and ticketing industry.

Live Nation has denied the allegations, calling them “baseless,” but ineligible experts hold that the DOJ’s petition for structural alleviation — including the imaginable breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster — represents the astir superior situation to the company’s concern exemplary since their 2010 merger.

The lawsuit is expected to participate find aboriginal this twelvemonth and could agelong good into 2026.

Adding to the pressure, the Federal Trade Commission filed a abstracted suit successful September 2025, accusing Ticketmaster and Live Nation of deceptive concern practices and violations of the BOTS Act.

According to the FTC, the institution misled consumers done “bait-and-switch” pricing and failed to enforce acquisition limits connected nonrecreational resellers that allegedly boosted profits portion inflating prices for fans.

The FTC is seeking billions successful civilian penalties, on with injunctive alleviation that could unit the institution to revamp its interest structures and broker relationships.

If that weren’t enough, Ticketmaster precocious suffered a large ineligible decision successful the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to perceive the company’s entreaty successful a long-running user antitrust case.

The quality centered connected whether...