Despite widespread opposition to the deal from brokers, Ticketmaster today announced it had completed its purchase of the nation’s number-two ranked secondary ticket reseller TicketsNow. Ticketmaster never officially disclosed the financial terms of the deal, which was scrutinized and approved by the federal government for possible anti-trust violations, but published reports placed the purchase price at $265 million.
The acquisition changes the ticket-selling landscape as Ticketmaster, already the largest primary ticket seller, according to TicketNews’ exclusive market rankings, is now poised to become the second-largest secondary ticket reseller with its sights set squarely on its rival StubHub for the top slot.
But, questions remain about how the relationship between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow will play out, especially as it relates to information about brokers and their sales, and how much of an advantage Ticketmaster may gain by having access to that data.
“As long as they [Ticketmaster] totally go free market, then it’s OK with me,” said Arizona State University Economics Professor Stephen Happel, one of the nation’s leading authorities on the ticketing industry. “But, the question is will Ticketmaster use the inherent advantages it has in the primary market to then channel tickets quietly through TicketsNow? They say they’re for transparency, but this is the same group that not that long ago was fighting vehemently against the secondary market before they found religion.”
Ticketmaster, which watched for years as StubHub and others grew and dominated the secondary market at the expense of its own TicketExchange model, knew it needed to make a big splash in the secondary market soon or risk being irreparably damaged, especially as it prepares for life without its largest customer, Live Nation, which is launching its own primary ticketing operation in 2009.
Industry heavyweight Harris Rosner, owner of VIPTickets.com, believes the deal will be a boon to ticket brokers because it further mainstreams what was once a stealth or clandestine market. “This raises the bar and further legitimizes the whole industry,” Rosner said. “I can’t say that I know all the answers as to how this will all shake out, but evolution was inevitable. Besides, I don’t think it’s in Ticketmaster’s best interest to pay $265 million for a company that they’ll implode.”
Sean Moriarty, president and CEO of Ticketmaster, said in a statement that the acquisition will redefine the ticket market. "We are going to provide fans more options and the most secure, reliable and convenient way to buy tickets to the events they want to attend at a price they are willing to pay."
Cheryl Rosner, CEO of TicketsNow, who will remain in charge of the company, added, "TicketsNow revolutionized the event ticket industry by providing great service and technology to the broker community and by ensuring the quality of resellers in our marketplace. By combining with Ticketmaster, TicketsNow is able to offer our partners a greatly expanded market opportunity and provide fans even higher levels of service and security."
-Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner also contributed to this story.
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Makes me sick to my stomach. All brokers need to pull their inventory off of ticketsnow. They need to demand equal shares of profit from the purchase or walk.
Ticketmaster will setup dummy companies to sell their own inventory on ticketsnow and cut the brokers out. Not only that, they will find private information and solicit the brokers customers, fire promoters who are feeding the brokers tickets, learn all the tricks of the trade and that will be the end of brokers period.
Stubhub needs to offer brokers a point of sale system and the same sort of technology that ticketsnow does. If they do that they will take ticketmaster right out of the whole picture..ticketsnow included.
How good would it look on ticketmaster if all the brokers took their inventory off ticketsnow and left them with an empty shell?
Ticketsnow would be worth $265 million peso's.
There is another way to look at this. If Ticketmaster was to combine there marketing and technology with TicketsNow, it could make an even better market place than StubHub. Imagine if you were able to buy your tickets on Ticketmaster, and immediatly post them for sale (through ticketmaster) on the TicketsNow website. Then if a customer wants to purchase those tickets, ticketmaster can invalidate the orignial tickets sent in the mail and email them, or mail valid tickets directly to the buyer without the seller having to do anything. Would cut down on fraud and bogus claims of couterfit tickets. Ticketmaster relies on brokers for thier business. they wont say it publicly but we all know they do. They didnt buy TicketsNow to put us all out of business, what good would that do them since we make up all of TicketsNow business? If they can make this more valuable for brokers to use Im all for it.
I think the individual venues have a better access to the tix then Ticketmaster.Hopefully this will prevent them to turning this into a really bad thing.
Right, Ticketmaster cant just decided to put the tickets up on TicketsNow, the managers have to approve it. And they may not even go through TicketMaster. Why would they? They can just list them themselves instead of slippiting the revenues wtih TM.
NO WAY will the brokers take their inventory down
????? FOOL
Given the recent lawsuit agains RMG, how TM will interact with brokers who use both TicketsNow & RMG to secure their tickets?
Given the recent lawsuit against RMG, how will TM deal with brokers who use both TicketNow services & RMG to secure their tickets?
I love to see a start up company with such success...congrats Mr. Domek you earned it
What a bunch of dirtbags (Ticket Brokers).