The shock exit of former Live Nation chairman Irving Azoff cost the music giant no less than $5.5million, with 26 staff and 12 artists following the exec out the door.

According to Live Nation’s full-year financial results for 2012/2013, the company saw an overall increase in revenues of 8.1% to $5.2m, but net losses across the company nearly doubled to $163 million.

Half of those losses were made up by Artist Nation, the management arm previously overseen by Azoff, who was also CEO of Frontline Management.

Artist Nation’s Operating Loss for the 12 months ended December 31 was $80.6m, an increase on the $24.9m loss posted the year prior.

The departure of the exec on December 31, 2012 cost Live Nation $5.5m, a write-off that has hit the division’s operating bottom line. The artists who exited with him are thought to include Christina Aguilera and Van Halen.

LN chief operating officer Joe Berchtold explained last night that these were “specific costs associated with the departure of 26 employees and 12 artists under management… a mix of severance and writing off contracts that run through 2013”.

On top of charges related to Azoff, this was further impacted by an impairment charge of $62.7 million related to certain client/vendor relationship intangibles based on current expectations related to future cash flows of this business. [MusicWeek]