Lyte Seeks a Buyer as Founder, Former Employees Speak Out

Ticketing company Lyte shut down suddenly late last week. Now Lyte seeks a buyer as founder Ant Taylor, former employees, and affected promoters and fans are offering a clearer picture of the closer despite $53 million in funding.

Starting last weekend promoters using Lyte told Hypebot they were unable to access their ticket inventory and consumers are complaining online about missing refunds.

Festicket acquisition and debt

Comments on social media and privately allege a difficult workplace and problems with leadership.

But it was Lyte’s September 2022 acquisition of bankrupt festival ticket aggregator Festicket that may have been its downfall. According to a filing in 2022, Festicket owed 155 promoters including AEG, Event Horizon and Festco about $24.3 million when it went under.

Along with the debt came a great deal of bad-will.

Lyte Seeks a Buyer as Founder Exits

Founder and chief executive Ant Taylor surfaced Tuesday confirming to Billboard’s Dave Brooks he had left Lyte and that its board and creditors were working to identify a potential buyer that could repay the funds due promoters and fans affected by shutdown.

As of Wednesday, Lyte was still offline with its home page reading: “undergoing scheduled maintenance.”

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.