This week, ticketing giant Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation confirmed a merger deal that would result in the new Live Nation Entertainment. Michael Hershfield, CEO for ticket resale upstart LiveStub, discussed the potential ramifications of the merger with Business News Network. (See the video below.)
The deal, estimated to be worth $2.5 billion, is still subject to approval by both companies’ shareholders and scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. However, the prospect of a finalized and approved merger has raised antitrust concerns within the industry.
Such a merger would create a monopoly through the “control of horizontal strengths,” argued Hershfield, with Ticketmaster and Live Nation essentially holding monopolies in the ticket and performance industries, respectively. He reasoned that, in the end, it’s not merely the ticket industry’s smaller players who will lose, but also the consumers.
“Consumers are really getting hurt because they don’t know how tickets are being fed into the market. They don’t know who is abusing them to get that extra dollar,” Hershfield noted.
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Someone finally standing up… this is what is needed.
Very well explained…this monopoly will not pass through the DOJ
Justice Department to probe Ticketmaster deal: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ticketmaster12-2009feb12,0,4303616.story
These 2 particular mob’s have been dealing with each other since the beginning on Jesus Christ. Hmmmm?????????
Isn’t Live Stub one of TNow’s AFFILIATES?
My goodness how desperate is Don Vacarro and his Ticketnews/ ticketnetwork getting.. LiveStub is not even a player. The dust in my car vent get more hits then this wanna be CEO / Website…
All Garbage and the positioning of all this is simply desperate moves… in my humble opinion
Yes, they are. Their order form is the ticketsnow order form..
i read somewhere that they want to remove the ticketsnow tickets..the faster we start posting on the site and fill the market, those TN tickets will be removed (or thats at least what LiveStub says)
It kinda makes sense, they just inserted Ticketsnows tickets so there could be tickets for all events… I wish i would have thought of it… oh, well!
ps. this clip is pretty impressive, first time i heard anyone stand up against the “gorilla” Cockroach Vs. Gorilla!!
i read somewhere that they want to remove the ticketsnow tickets..the faster we start posting on the site and fill the market, those TN tickets will be removed (or thats at least what LiveStub says)
It kinda makes sense, they just inserted Ticketsnows tickets so there could be tickets for all events… I wish i would have thought of it… oh, well!
ps. this clip is pretty impressive, first time i heard anyone stand up against the “gorilla” Cockroach Vs. Gorilla!!
Tickettaker–just listen to him! this is an insightful breakdown of the deal. I dont know much about LiveStub (didnt they just launch?) but Hershfield impressed me in this interview.
I have not heard or read of anyone really standing up against the deal with as much confidence and insight…We need hershfield right now, lets embrace him not shoot him down. To be honest, i kinda wish he was out there more.
you dont seem humble, just bitter/jealous.
attitude, a little arrogance.
Great clip
FYI; no one else has portrayed the anti merger message better —