The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has officially opened an investigation into the planned merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment, the agency announced today.
Specific details of the investigation were not released, but the planned merger has drawn an avalanche of press, much of it against the deal, since news broke earlier this month.
“The Antitrust Division is committed to vigorous enforcement of the merger antitrust laws and will conduct a thorough investigation of the proposed Ticketmaster/Live Nation transaction” said Gina Talamona, spokesperson for the Department, in a statement.
Ticketmaster is no stranger to the DOJ, having been investigated for its acquisitions of ticket solutions company Paciolan in 2007 and secondary ticket company TicketsNow in 2008. Both deals were allowed to close.
The Live Nation merger could be different, however. Not only did superstar Bruce Springsteen come out against the deal, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also wants to see the deal reviewed. Ticketmaster and Live Nation anticipated the deal would be reviewed, and the two still hope to close on the merger in the second half of 2009.
Last Updated on June 2, 2009
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RE: this and the Bruce Springsteen incident. The blame should be directed at Julia Vander Ploeg as well; she is the VP of Marketing at TicketsNow.com. This “snafu” which they try to blame on a “snafu” will not only cost the company a $500 million dollar class action lawsuit to defend but the loss of sales because of the bad press, and the merger will probably not go thru. I would call your local congressman and include her name. She is the VP of Marketing of TicketsNow…
Could this turn into a criminal probe and possibly the congress asking the executives of TicketsNow and Ticketmaster to testify before them? This could get very intresting very fast. Wow!
So what sort of “positve” article would you like to see? TicketMaster+LN is good? If there was something good to say it’d be said.
No one (they are taking a negative hit BIG TIME in the media) is defending TicketNow because the comapny has done wrong to the general public AND to it’s own affialites (the ones that help them drive revenue). I was an affiliate for TicketsNow.com. They owe me thousands in commission. They have refused to pay. My lawyer is starting the process of a class action lawsuit against them.
There are two issues mentioned in this article.
First, is the issue of TicketsNow and Ticketmaster. That merger has already happened, so the DOJ really can’t weigh in on it. Granted, it looks suspicious and unsavory but that’s just dumb marketing and nothing else.
Second is the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The only thing potentially illegal about this is the reduction of competition in the Ticketing space. Live Nation already had a cozy relationship with Ticketmaster and that was never illegal, so having them in the same outfit doesn’t seem like it would be illegal in itself. One could argue that Live Nation’s ticketing engine might maybe have competed with Ticketmaster’s, but that’s a “what if” scenario that wasn’t likely to play out – Live Nation was bleeding debt and it’s doubtful that would have ever happened anyway.
So I don’t see what, legally, can be done to stop this merger.
I know, we all love to rant about how much we’d hate to see this happen, but at the same time, we do have to keep ourselves in check about what is legal and what isn’t. And so far, I see nothing that indicates this is actually ILLEGAL.
Same can be said for TicketNews. Every article has a negative slant against Ticketmaster. Kettle meet Pot.
The part of this deal that may violate anti-trust laws is if the combined company can restrict competition in the ticketing business for venues. For example, if someone were to open a new 20,000 seat arena in a major city – maybe the nicest, best located, best priced venue in the world – and if the Live Nation sales team showed up and told the manager of the venue “unless you take our (Ticketmaster) system you are going to have a very empty building because neither will Front Line artists, nor Live Nation promters work your building. Now if you were to take this great (Ticketmaster) system and allow us to distribute your tickets then the promoters and managers might reconsider their position.~
This scenario is a violation of anti-trust laws and it’s really up to the DoJ to interpet whether or not this is likely to have happened or happen in the future contemplated by the merger.
Every article has aggressive pro ticketmaster spin in the comments which is amusing. like somehow they think we don’t know its them. dont insult us!