Report: Live Nation to Buy Signatures Network

Live Nation Adds to Its Arsenal

By Alfred Branch, Jr.

The Live Nation spending spree continues, as the live music goliath is reportedly in talks to buy music branding and merchandising company Signatures Network for about $50 million, according to the New York Post.

Last week, Live Nation inked a $120 million deal with Madonna, who has a merchandising agreement with Signatures Network.

Among the more than 125 artists with merchandising deals with Signatures Network is KISS, Velvet Revolver and U2, for which Signatures Network allegedly mishandled a fan club presale for tickets for a previous tour. According to an unnamed source, Signatures Network over sold $40 U2 fan club memberships by more than 100,000, and many of those fans ended up not receiving tickets.

In its aggressive attempts to grow the company within the music industry, and eventually overtake Ticketmaster on the ticketing side, Live Nation has snapped up several ancillary music companies in recent months, including t-shirt company Trunk Ltd. and website developer Ultrastar, among others, according to published reports.