NEW YORK – Within hours of receiving conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Justice on Jan. 25, Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment completed their merger. The deal, in the works for nearly a year, pools the resources of the largest concert promoter (Live Nation) with the leading ticketing company (Ticketmaster). But the newly merged Live Nation Entertainment must abide by several antitrust stipulations To qualm antitrust concerns, the Justice Department required that competitors including AEG gain access to Ticketmaster ticketing software. The newly-merged company, moreover, will not be allowed to retaliate against venues that opt to do business with these competing ticketing services.
In addition, Live Nation Entertainment had to agree to divest itself of one of the former Ticketmaster operating units, Paciolan, which had played a key role in ticketing at performing arts venues, museums and college sports arenas.
Even after meeting those conditions, however, Live Nation Entertainment will play a key role in the nation's live event industry, promoting some 22,000 events every year, owning close to 140 major venues, maintaining long-term contracts with a long roster of top artists, and retaining a major share of live event tickets sold every year.
The final terms of the deal called for Ticketmaster shareholders to receive 1.474 shares of Live Nation common stock for each share they own of Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's stock, meanwhile, ceased trading on Jan. 25.
Boosted by a flurry of late January trading, the total value of the merger was estimated to be approximately $835 million.
For more information, please visit www.ticketmaster.com and www.livenation.com.
