After a year of investigation into the proposed merger between concert ticketing giant Ticket Master and concert production giant Live Nation, the Justice Department is giving both parties the all clear to get hitched. The merger between Live Nation and Ticket Master creates the biggest concert production and ticketing giant which will no doubt leave mom and pop ticketers scrambling to remain relevant. But they need not to worry because with this merger, concert fans may find that they are paying more for tickets.
The new company, to be called Live Nation Entertainment, has agreed to divest its Paciolan ticketing operation, acquired by Ticketmaster in 2007, and must strike a ticketing licensing agreement with sports and entertainment company AEG, whose concert promotion division AEG Live is Live Nation's closest competitor. Entertainment attorney Allen Grubman, whose Grubman Indursky & Shire firm represents both Ticketmaster and Live Nation CEOs Michael Rapino and Irving Azoff (but was not directly involved in negotiations with the DOJ), calls the DOJ’s approval of the deal “a healthy thing that will revitalize live entertainment.”
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After a year of investigation into the proposed merger between concert ticketing giant Ticket Master and concert production giant Live Nation, the Justice Department is giving both parties the all clear to get hitched. The merger between Live Nation and Ticket Master creates the biggest concert production and ticketing giant which will no doubt leave mom and pop ticketers scrambling to remain relevant. But they need not to worry because with this merger, concert fans may find that they are paying more for tickets.
