When shareholders of Tix Corp. come together at the company’s annual meeting in September, they will decide whether to re-elect the current board of directors or bring on a new slate of candidates supported by an activist investor. Haren Bhakta, managing member of HSB Capital Partners LP in Santa Ana, has targeted the Studio City discount ticket seller for Las Vegas shows and attractions for what he claims are mishandlings of thae company’s operations. “If this was any other company the board wouldn’t be there, the CEO (Mitch Francis) would have been fired a long time ago,” said Bhakta, whose firm owns about 5 percent of Tix. “He has put on the board four of his friends and they let him do what he wants to do. They don’t ask questions.” Attempts to reach a representative of Tix for comment were not successful. But in a press release on July 5, the company warned shareholders that they may have been contacted by HSB Capital and Bhakta regarding the board election candidates and urged them to disregard those communications. “During the past two years, Tix has been forced to expend valuable resources defending itself and its stockholders from Mr. Bhakta’s destructive actions, which … have included harassment of Tix employees, interference with Tix’s business and other dubious behavior,” the company said in its release. For instance, the company’s allegations claim that Bhakta used surveillance equipment to spy on Tix’s booths and the Tix corporate office; misrepresented himself as a job applicant at its corporate office without an appointment; and harassed Tix employees, both in person and through social media. Bhakta denied the allegations in an interview with the Business Journal. “I have never harassed any employees,” he said. “The only surveillance equipment I had was me and my iPhone when I took some pictures. There was no other surveillance equipment that I used.” For its part, Tix management said they have not mismanaged the company and in fact have done much to turn it around financially. For example, they said the share price has increased by more than 200 percent since it returned in December to selling discounted tickets to Cirque du Soleil shows at MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas from its Tix4Tonight booths. “Management anticipates sequential quarterly improvement in operating income and cash flows throughout the remainder of this year,” the company’s release said. For the first quarter ending March 31, Tix reported net income of $50,000 (0 cents a share) compared with a net loss of $717,000 (-4 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased by 3 percent to $3.1 million. Tix share price closed at 58 cents on July 17 on the over-the-counter market. Bhakta has plenty of criticisms to direct at Francis, other Tix executives and the current board of directors. For example, he points to how the company did not start online sales of discount tickets until 2017. Bhakta said he has talked with former employees and board members who had proposed online sales to Francis in 2008. Francis did not pursue it, wanting instead to focus on driving foot traffic to the ticket booths, Bhakta said. “It is pretty ridiculous,” he added. “He missed it. Many people proposed the idea to him and the board and they decided to go in another direction.” For the board election, Bhakta has put up himself and three others as candidates. The others are Palak Bhakta, a senior patent attorney for BlackBerry Ltd. (and no relation to Haren Bhakta); John Buckingham, a professor in marketing at Pepperdine University; and Michael Fisk, principal and owner of InterMark Strategy & Consulting, a marketing consulting firm in Los Angeles. In its release to shareholders, Tix said the nominating notices for the four were incomplete and deficient according to company bylaws and that votes for them would not count. It also said that all the candidates were unqualified. Bhakta countered that votes for his candidate slate would count. Also, with backgrounds in digital marketing, Buckingham and Fisk are a good choice to help turn Tix into a powerhouse. “They are more than qualified,” he added. “They are largely more qualified than the three attorneys currently on the board.”