Ticketmaster-Live Nation Settles
Posted by Josh Wright on January 25, 2010
Here are the details on the conditions imposed:
Under the conditions set forth by the Justice Department, the merged company would need to sell off a unit that sells tickets to college sporting events, and would need to license its ticketing software to rival concert promoter AEG Live, so that company can launch a competing service. An AEG spokesman did not have an immediate comment but said the company would have a statement shortly.
Ticketmaster must sell its ticketing company Paciolan Inc. within 60 days to Comcast Corp. subsidiary Comcast-Spectacor, a sports and entertainment company, or another suitable buyer. The department said Comcast-Spectacor already has signed a letter of intent to buy the Paciolan assets.
The company also would be barred from retaliating against venue operators who want to use ticketing services from competitors. For instance, the merged company would be prevented from blocking artists it represents from playing in those venues.
Live Nation stages more concerts and concert tours than any other promoter, and owns or operates 75 major venues in the U.S. Ticketmaster sells tickets for the majority of major sports and entertainment venues in the U.S., and has an artist management division that handles the affairs of hundreds of the biggest acts in pop, rock and country.
Interesting conditions. More commentary later. One immediately interesting feature is that the structural fix is coupled with some conduct requirements (i.e. non-retaliation provisions). This suggests to me a lack of confidence in the structural fix in the first instance.
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TRUTH ON THE MARKET » Varney on the Merger Guidelines said
[...] remarks seem uncontroversial, especially following on the heels of the agency’s (surprising?) clearance of the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger with conditions (but see the agency’s challenge of the [...]
TRUTH ON THE MARKET » Meese & Richman on Ticketmaster/ Live Nation said
[...] first, which I hinted at here, is that the combination of the structural fix coupled with the non-retaliation provisions strikes [...]