StubHub Cuts Staff, Moves From Silicon Slopes to Atlanta

Building Salt Lake is the leading source for commercial real estate information in Utah. Register to receive our free emails in your inbox. Access the paid features of the site by become a member Today.

StubHub has informed its employees that it will close its Silicon Slopes office and lay off most of its Utah employees by October, according to emails the company recently sent to its employees.

The news, announced June 27, came as a shock to employees of the private ticket sales company, which opened a customer service office in Draper in 2017.

Company management said relocating its customer service operations to Atlanta would better position it against StubHub’s international offices. It added that the labor pool also played a role in the decision.

“Atlanta is highly regarded for its cutting-edge talent and growing entertainment and service industries,” StubHub President Nayaab Islam wrote in an email to employees.

Staff began working from home on Monday and StubHub’s lease is set to expire at the end of this month.

The website sltrib.com was the first to report the layoffs and the closure of the company’s offices on Thursday.

StubHub first opened its office in 2017, when it was owned by online merchandise giant eBay.

When it opened, the company said Utah’s plethora of multilingual speakers helped make its customer service office successful in helping customers.

The company now says moving to Atlanta, in the Eastern Time zone, will be a strategic advantage.

“With key operations in Los Angeles, New York, Limerick, Geneva and more, having the call center located in the Eastern Time Zone will also allow for better collaboration across StubHub teams and markets and broader support for our customers,” Felix Descamps, StubHub’s vice president of operations, wrote in an email 10 minutes before Islam’s. “This change will allow us to be faster in serving our customers and better provide them with the global support they’ve come to expect while continuing to improve and optimize their experience.”

Ebay, which is also looking to exit its Silicon Slopes campus while remaining in the region, sold StubHub in 2020.

Email Taylor Anderson

Building Salt Lake is the leading source for commercial real estate information in Utah. Register to receive our free emails in your inbox. Access the paid features of the site by become a member Today.