Latest Updates on Live Nation / Ticketmaster Merger

What a week in the world of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. After appearing before the two congressional committees, much has been unearthed for the public to digest.

Fans may not have noticed that there are some high-powered political players serving on the boards of the two companies, as well as a few others who are classified as lobbyists. The Chicago Sun-Times states:

“Live Nation’s board members include director Ari Emanuel, brother of President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and Ticketmaster’s board boasts director Julius Genachowski, a Harvard classmate of the President and a co-leader of the transition team’s policy work group on technology, innovation and government.

Ticketmaster has retained former Rep. Mel Levine (D-Calif.)’s lobbying firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Lee Godown, longtime chief of staff to California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, and Daniel Kohns – Rep. Mike Honda’s (D-Calif.) former communications director – both registered on behalf of the lobbyist firm and Live Nation.

Should the merger happen, Reuters is reporting that “Live concert promoter AEG may end its ticketing relationship with Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM.O) if the world’s largest ticketing agency merges with Live Nation Inc (LYV.N), according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.”

In a twist of irony, Ticketmaster’s CEO Irving Azoff is crying that the secondary ticket market should be illegal. The Guardian quotes Azoff: “I don’t believe there should be a secondary [tickets] market at all,” Azoff said. “I believe that scalping and resale should be illegal.” Would that mean that TicketsNow.com would also be illegal? Well, when Ticketmaster bought the site, Azoff was not in charge. Had he been, Azoff says that he wouldn’t have bought the company. Sadly, as paper reports:

Despite this announcement, the “glitch” has again reared its ugly head. CBC has reported that Canadian fans were forwarded to TicketsNow when attempting to buy Leonard Cohen tickets from Ticketmaster. Tickets with a face value of $99-$250 were allegedly being sold at TicketsNow for between $568 and $856. On Thursday, the LA Times reported that TicketsNow is proffering seats for the forthcoming No Doubt reunion tour, with tickets due to go on official sale via Livenation on 7 March.

All this being said, Live Nation will make its earnings public on Monday, however they are already bracing investors for a fourth quarter loss. Forbes.com is stating that “analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting a fourth-quarter loss of 22 cents per share on revenue of $1.00 billion.”

Given that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are claiming that 40% of their tickets go unsold, I can understand why there would be a loss. If that is indeed the case, then shouldn’t those acts who are having losses be playing in smaller buildings or in different markets? Seems like there should be some management restructuring going on here so that the fans aren’t being asked to foot higher prices to cover their losses.

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