Current Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff will be paid a base salary of $2 million per year through 2014 if the proposed merger with Live Nation is accepted, according to a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that outlined his potential compensation package.
Azoff, already one of the most powerful executives in popular music and entertainment, would become the executive chairman of Live Nation and retain his position as CEO of Front Line Management, the artist management company he sold to Ticketmaster in 2008.
“The new employment arrangements with Executive [Azoff] principally address Executive’s employment with Live Nation following the Merger,” the SEC document stated. Should the merger not go through, the employment terms will not apply.
Azoff’s base salary will be the same as his current salary, which was what he agreed to with Front Line in 2007.
Separately, Azoff stands to receive a $2 million cash bonus upon the completion of the merger, and he will be subject to also receiving annual bonuses of between $1 million and $2 million in addition to his base salary.
In addition, if Azoff is terminated by Live Nation he may be entitled to receive millions of dollars worth of company stock. The Azoff Family Trust received 1 million shares of Ticketmaster stock when the company bought Front Line, and that stock would vest immediately upon his termination from the company.
The combined Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which will be a $2.5 billion company, will be renamed Live Nation Entertainment and will be headed by Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino.
