Today’s The New York Times is reporting that Ticketmaster is in serious negotiations with Live Nation to merge. While Ticketmaster is also meeting with the Anschutz Entertainment Group, they are leaning more towards Live Nation.
Fans might have seen and/or experienced the complete Live Nation ticketing meltdown this past weekend when tickets went on sale for Phish, who haven’t toured for many many years. The same held true for Ticketmaster’s ticketing meltdown for Bruce Springsteen tickets yesterday.
According to Reuters, the merger would have some serious anti-trust issues, as well as competition issues. Should the merger succeed, the company would be known as Live Nation Ticketmaster with a combined market value of $700 million.
There is no guarantee that the deal will be done by the time U2′s tour is announced. Currently the deal is tenuous at best and can fall through over issues like management control, according to Reuters.
What does this mean for U2 fans? As I reported on the @U2 blog back in October, an industry insider told us that U2 was planning on using Ticketmaster’s ticketing for their 2009 tour: “U2 is the biggest client [of Live Nation] and they don’t want to risk something going wrong with their system while they are still working on it.”
What could also dampen the merger is a United States congressional investigation. According to The Hartford Courant, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. from New Jersey is requesting that “the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division investigate Ticketmaster’s relationship with its subsidiary company, TicketsNow, following the company’s handling of ticket sales for the Bruce Springsteen tour that became available on Monday February 2.” Here is a snippet of his letter to the FTC and the DOJ:
When tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s new tour went on sale exclusively through Ticketmaster at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 2, 2009, scores of fans in New Jersey were met with technical difficulty on Ticketmaster.com that impaired them from making a purchase. Thousands of others who were fortunate enough to get beyond the technical problems were informed that the shows were sold out.
Conspicuously placed on the same screen that informed fans of ticket unavailability was an alternative purchasing option from TicketsNow.com. It offered the same tickets at a value marked up hundreds of dollars beyond their original face value.
I am troubled by how quickly tickets priced exponentially higher became available on the secondary market to thousands of rejected fans, many who also endured unfortunate technical problems on Ticketmaster.com.
I am concerned that the business affiliation between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow may represent a conflict of interest that is detrimental to the average fan. There is a significant potential for abuse when one company is able to monopolize the primary market for a product and also directly manipulate, and profit from, the secondary market.
As I reported back in July, the secondary ticket market is certainly one that people should be paying close attention to. Even Fortune Magazine has a story about the changing game of the secondary ticket market, where search engines can be used for ticket finding.
We’ll wait and watch as this unfolds, but in the meantime, patience is going to be the name of the game when U2′s tickets go on sale. Thankfully (and quite unfortunately), The Boss and Phish were the ones having issues this time ’round and not U2. Fingers crossed that whatever does happen, our experience come springtime will be far better.
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Sherry — nice follow up on this ongoing story.
Great story and ongoing coverage. The very real prospect of anti-trust issues grows exponentially with LiveNations gobbling up venues… My real concern is the looming specter of “paperless group ticketing,” where you present the credit card you used to pay for the concert tickets, and everyone in your party has to be at the venue at the same time and enter the same door, etc. –which I believe you also recently discussed here on @u2.com…
I still wince with pain recalling U2’s ticketing debacle that accompanied the first leg of the Vertigo tour. DAMN!
However, (maybe the issues were resolved before tickets went on sale in the Central Time Zone) I had no issues with getting tickets to Springsteen’s upcoming show in Chicago. I got in to TicketMaster.com immediately, purchased GA (floor) tickets on my second try, and look forward to comparing The Boss’ 2008 show with U2’s 2008 shows!
I’ve had a sinking feeling ever since U2 struck the Live Nation deal that something would go haywire. My fear has been that Live Nation would collapse before or during the U2 tour, and there would be people left disappointed. Fingers crossed this will all work out.