Powerhouse Ticketmaster is acquiring secondary ticket reseller TicketsNow, a move that instantly vaults Ticketmaster to the top of the secondary ticket market.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but reported estimates place the acquisition as high as $265 million. According to TicketNews’ exclusive industry rankings, TicketsNow is the nation’s second-largest secondary ticketer behind StubHub!, and Ticketmaster is already number one among primary ticketing companies.
Spokespersons for both companies did not respond to requests for comment Monday or early today about the pending deal, but the merger makes Ticketmaster, fresh off its federal approval to acquire ticket solutions company Paciolan, even more dominant. Similar to the Paciolan acquisition, the TicketsNow deal is also subject to federal regulatory review, and considering there was some opposition within the industry to the Paciolan purchase, expect there to be some opposition this time around.
While revenues have grown at Ticketmaster in the past year, the plan of parent company IAC/InterActiveCorp to spin it off as a separate company has not gained large support among investors and analysts, in part due to Ticketmaster’s lackluster performance in the burgeoning secondary market. As news of the TicketsNow acquisition spread through the financial markets early today, IAC’s stock had dropped nearly 2 percent and was trading below $24, as of 10:40am.
Without the acquisition, Ticketmaster was facing an uphill fight in the secondary market as several more entrenched companies dominated the market, such as StubHub!, TicketsNow, TicketLiquidator and RazorGator, among others. This despite Ticketmaster’s recent contracts with the NFL, NBA and NHL as the authorized secondary ticket reseller for those leagues.
“Fans have embraced ticket resale, and the combination of Ticketmaster and TicketsNow will allow us to provide a safer, more reliable and efficient resale experience,” Sean Moriarty, President and CEO of Ticketmaster, said in a prepared statement. “We are confident that combining TicketsNow’s strong resale network with our audience and distribution capabilities will enable us to set a new standard in the resale category.”
TicketsNow, which sells more than $200 million in tickets annually, was recently sued by an angry parent over the Hannah Montana ticketing mess, and the company’s network of brokers have traditionally opposed Ticketmaster’s dominance and influence. Whether that will be a problem going forward if the acquisition is approved remains to be seen.
“We have built our business by providing great service and technology to the broker community and by ensuring the quality of resellers in our marketplace,” Cheryl Rosner, CEO of TicketsNow, said in a statement. Rosner was named CEO of the company during the summer of 2007, and officials said she would retain that title after the merger. “Combining with Ticketmaster will enable us to offer our partners a more compelling marketplace and provide even higher levels of service and security to fans of live entertainment.”
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You guys are idiots. Why would ticketmaster waste 265 million dollars to purchase a company so that they can wipe out brokers. This is why you guys are all low end ticket brokers and why none of you will ever be comparable to the stub-hubs or ticketmasters of the world. Ticketmaster clearly sees that the secondary ticket market and brokers are where the money is at. Why would they eliminate brokers and cancel out tickets give me a break. Do you guys really think that’s going to fly with a publicly traded company. They purchased ticketsnow to get into the mix of the secondary ticket market where the lucrative money is. Let me spend 265 million dollars on company and then we will cancel the brokers tickets out so that we can go ahead and sell them for face value. Think about what you saying. Get a degree go to school stop selling tickets out of the back of your car.
Where do I start? Well, brokers will never be the StubHub or TicketMaster’s of the world – both of these companies have stated publicly that ticket brokers are the competition. They want to eliminate the secondary market brokers once and for all. Step 1 – buy TicketsNow and integrate, Step 2 – Slowly kill the secondary market through margin compression. TicketMaster does see the margin in the secondary market and is trying to capture some of it through this purchase. They know that they can simply price their inventory at market demand and split the profit w/ their venues/promoters directly, cutting BROKERS out of the picture completely. They’ll eventually move inventory directly into the “secondary” market through this integration. They used to call it the “TicketMaster Exchange”.
You’re not seeing the big picture here. They’re not going to “cancel brokers tickets out”,they’ll gladly take the tickets to venues they don’t control and put them on TicketsNow.com, at your expense, if you’re a sucker. I’m sure they have many ploys in the next few months to make it appear that they’re your friend Mr. Broker, that’s not the case. You don’t need an advanced degree from an Ivy League school to see this for what it is. The secondary market isn’t going away anytime soon but those who choose to stay in bed with TicketsNow, i.e., TicketMaster, will wake up someday and realize they’ve fueled their own demise by believing that TicketMaster is doing this to help brokers make more money.
If you think TicketMaster is your friend, Mr. Broker, god help you, I really do hope you have that great degree you’re telling everyone else they should have! The “idiots” will be weeded out soon enough – they’ll most likely be looking for what they can do for employment w/o a degree! No, I don’t want fries with my Shake.
Did you go to School?? High School? Where did you learn to write? What a dumb ass!
Where did you learn to write? Two question marks in a row that is proper grammar.
Great come back.
I think this is funny. The scam artists (brokers) are being scammed.
During the Ticketsummit in Las Vegas this past summer, representatives from an anonymous company & AEG were present for a meeting which was held in closed quarters upon which a business plan was introduced by the anonymous company to AEG’s representatives who were also there on behalf of ticketmaster.
The business plan itself included rolling up 6 major brokers across North America and Europe. The start up of a marketplace by creating a ticketboard in Europe and aligning all the individual brokers across Europe.
Also discussed was the purchase of ticketsnow and how much it would cost to do so. The company value as discussed was quoted at $200 million.
This could not be sold to ticketmaster because they already own the ticketexchange. We said the ticketexchange was going nowhere and were proven right by recent developments.
This information was obviously passed onto ticketmaster by the AEG representatives. Incase you did not know, AEG recently agreed to sell thier tickets through the ticketmaster exchange, to avoid fans complaining about high ticket prices and corner the secondary market.
The anonymous company’s representative encouraged not to purchase ticketsnow and instead to work with the brokers in creating their own board to have full control of their markets, clients, interests and industry and sell it as a publicly traded company.
The rep who was in the meeting on behalf of AEG and Ticketmaster “unofficial rep” agreed to other meetings for further discussions to follow up on the proposed business plan which never materialized.
This move by ticketmaster is to keep the brokers fractured and to buy time until digital ticketing technology which is presently being tested in Australia is implemented into their ticketing solutions. Also to solidify their monopoly.
I suggest any broker who has issues with the happenings which have occurred and has interest in the future of their business should contact the regulatory commission and submit any reasons why the purchase of tickets by ticketmaster should not happen.
1. TicketNow sells tickets right on the ticketmaster page
2. how do we know ticketmaster is selling tickets to the public first befor they put them on ticketsNow
3. Ticketmaster says check back as the event nears as tickets may available. Sounds like TM will resell all the unsold tickets from ticketsnow
4. Technical difficulty on Ticketmaster that impaired us from making a purchase, and if you were lucky to get on the site you found out it was soldout
5. LIVE NATION AND TICKETMASTER TO COMBINE IN MERGER. Live Nataion owns most of the venues . This a monopoly. . aren’t there laws against this !!!!
I say enough is enough so I started a website with #’s and addresses of congressmen to complain to
do your part and call congress and complain.
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/207734?m
EBay bought Ticket Technology.
When my contract comes up this Spring, I am taking by business somewhere else. Ticketmaster will screw the brokers, Trust me! Just look at there History with how they have treated Brokers in the Past.
The real question here though is will ticketmaster still offer good tickets in their onsales. Or will all the good tickets be sold by them on the secondary market?
Many people think that they will try to squeeze brokers out.
I personally think that if they don’t offer good tickets for sales they will cause a backlash again their company. But who knows where this is all going to go. Real hard to say.
If you continue to list on TicketsNow and/or use EI Box Office, you are making the decision that you are comfortable with Ticketmaster having access to the most vital information in your business. Your ticket inventories. Your sales. Your season ticket holdings. Your profits by transaction, by location, by customer.
Personally, it’s not worth it to me to entrust my livelihood to Ticketmaster, which has every financial incentive to destroy my business and take more markup (ie – my income) for itself. There are other good places to find distribution, and other reasonable, affordable choices for POS support. If you choose to fund EI, and Ticketmaster, with your continued business, you are subsidizing your own demise.
I’ve been selling through Ticket Network for close to a year now, but just recently joined their POS program. Before I joined, I looked into Tickets Now, but their prices seemed way too high and they don’t seem that interested in signing up new brokers. I love Ticket Network and will keep my fingers crossed that ticketmaster will not try to control the entire resale market and make TN “an offer they can’t refuse”. After all, everyone is in this to make money…..but then, who’s left holding the bag?? THE BROKERS! And we will be the ones to get totally screwed while all of these “entrepeneurs” sit back and collect their cash while partying on their million dollar yachts.
Recently I screwed by TicketsNow for Hannah Montana at Bardely Center, 1/13/08.
Both items were bought on eBay and surprisingly were delivered by TicketsNow. Guess what both sets were delivered 10 rows back then mentioned on eBay just 2 days before event. Upon talking to TicketsNow, was told that these tickets were purchased by people toally different then eBay sellers and were shipped to me so they have nothing to do with me.
What a mess that they can deliver to my house, but not reponsible!!!
Glad that I used paypal and I screwed them back by filing report and won both PayPals.
I feel more comfortable buying on StubHub then any other broker web site (old wine in new bottles).
i was given an ultimatum by ticketsnow about 2 yrs ago.. either use EI Box office or you can’t list tickets on our system. I decided to use ticket network exclusively. my business has grown tremendously since and my work is easier. I Manage one database instead of 2. i make more money with less work.
You should go back to school and learn to write a paragraph that actually makes
sense.
I’m sorry, but are you guys out of your mind? If ticketmaster is giving even more money to the artist/whatever then why on earth would they change anything? IF anything, they will want more brokers/inventory to make a sale, cuz it’s also in their pocket…. The site will get more traffic now, which is exactly what you need to make a sale. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
Miami based Tickets of America President CEO Michael J Lipman is encouraged by publicly traded companies such as Ebay and IAC’s ability to foresee the opportunities in the billion dollar secondary resell market and believes they will pave the way for future merger and acquisitions.
The acquisition of Ticketsnow is a surprising move for Ticketmaster since the majority of tickets posted on Ticketsnow’s website are ticket brokers’ inventory, may of whom will now pull the plug by not listing them anymore as a result of this partnership. Ticketsnow’s business model caters to brokers and the majority of the web hits are from fellow brokers, not from fans listing inventory.
Ticketmaster, a dominant primary market ticket seller, actively encourages teams and concert promoters to buy and then sell their tickets on Ticketmaster’s secondary market exchange. As a result of losing several legislative battles in states such as New York and being investigated in states such as Missouri, Ticketmaster’s “Ticketexchange” and “auctions” have failed in the public eye. Ticketmaster must use the Ticketsnow brand name to market premium seats to events such as Hannah Montana to the secondary market which will inflate the prices.
The law of supply and demand dictates the price of tickets on the secondary market, consumers reselling their tickets on the Internet are a contributing factor for what the market price is, reputable companies such as http://www.ticketsofamerica.com , Ebay, and Stubhub encourage fans to buy/sell at market prices which often times causes prices to sell at less than face value. Ticketmaster, Promoters, Sports Teams, and Venue partners often hold back the supply of tickets which artificially inflates the prices by hyping the scarcity of supply and deceiving the public by saying “sold out.” This is not in the best interest of the consumer and prices are never going to be less than face value or at true market price.
If you are using TicketsNow POS, Ticketmaster is going to know the inventory and the Brokers who have it. What they may do is get the locations of the seats for Sports Teams for example, report them to the teams and the Broker will lose the seats.
THINK OF THIS FOR A SECOND:
What is going to stop Ticketmaster from finding out your seat locations and reporting them to the teams? What’s going to stop them? Then go around behind the teams or Brokers’ back and buy the same seats locations and resale them. Thinks about it? They have the information and Money to do that? What is going to stop them? Ticketmaster has been trying to screw Brokers for years.
Now TicketMaster is at the gate of the Brokers with a Trojan House trying to make peace. It works!! Don’t Trust Ticketmaster guys!!
Ticket Master purchasing Tickets Now will only help you business…their site will receive so many for visitors…more visitors means more business for Ticket Brokers
Ticket Master purchasing Tickets now will only help you business…their site will receive so many for visitors…more visitors means more business for Ticket Brokers
HA HA .. Keep thinking that. TicketMaster helping brokers make more money, yaaaaaaaa riiigghht.
All this wisdom coming from another illiterate. Wake up and take your head out of your ass!
There is a POS that is entirely owned by brokers equally, Ticket Technology. We are expanding and you can become a user and an owner. Control your own destiny!
We have been talking to 4 other brokers this morning and we decided to take our inventory off TicketsNow POS Friday Jan 18 by 12 noon (if we can get it all off by then, we have over 2200 events) out of protest. We will leave them off until we can get a new POS system. Our Contact (thank God) comes up in April so we can live with it. Join us if you want. Guys (fellow Brokers) its time to get back at TicketMaster. I would personally like to see them eat 265 million. But they will get there money back again in a couple years after they sue more Brokers, Stubhub, and Ebay. That is a good question? Why don’t Ebay do something about this?
Also, if you what to do the protest will us, go for it. The more the merry! IT TIIME TO SHOW TicketMaster who is boss!!! We own the invertory remember?
Ticketsnow is only the sum of its parts,900 parts. If those parts should happen to fall off there will be nothing. The sum of nothing is nothing! Then they can sell air! Knock off the ticketsnow software and start a new one and sell shares of the company to the brokers,this way all the brokers will own it and control it,and if anyone comes calling,and after a democratic vote, we can tell them to hit the road, or even except an offer so that we can all retire to the beach! who needs tickets.
As a broker who has been selling on Ticketsnow for over 6 years now. I feel like
I have made a great contribution to Ticketsnow and I am wondering where do I stand
now? I am just trying to figure this whole thing out. Any insight or comments from
other brokers will be very helpful. The first thing that came to my mind was dropping
Ei box office as my point of sale and buy TicketNetworks point of sale. But, then
I wonder if Ticketnetwork will do the same thing Ticketsnow just did months from now.
I have been with TicketNetwork’s POS for two years now. Personally, I would not switch because I’m doing well with them. I think this is going to hurt TicketsNow. I’m shocked.
During the Ticketsummit in Las Vegas this past summer, representatives from an anonymous company & AEG were present for a meeting which was held in closed quarters upon which a business plan was introduced by the anonymous company to AEG’s representatives who were also there on behalf of ticketmaster.
The business plan itself included rolling up 6 major brokers across North America and Europe. The start up of a marketplace by creating a ticketboard in Europe and aligning all the individual brokers across Europe.
Also discussed was the purchase of ticketsnow and how much it would cost to do so. The company value as discussed was quoted at $200 million.
This could not be sold to ticketmaster because they already own the ticketexchange. We said the ticketexchange was going nowhere and were proven right by recent developments.
This information was obviously passed onto ticketmaster by the AEG representatives. Incase you did not know, AEG recently agreed to sell thier tickets through the ticketmaster exchange, to avoid fans complaining about high ticket prices and corner the secondary market.
The anonymous company’s representative encouraged not to purchase ticketsnow and instead to work with the brokers in creating their own board to have full control of their markets, clients, interests and industry and sell it as a publicly traded company.
The rep who was in the meeting on behalf of AEG and Ticketmaster “unofficial rep” agreed to other meetings for further discussions to follow up on the proposed business plan which never materialized.
This move by ticketmaster is to keep the brokers fractured and to buy time until digital ticketing technology which is presently being tested in Australia is implemented into their ticketing solutions. Also to solidify their monopoly.
I suggest any broker who has issues with the happenings which have occurred and has interest in the future of their business should contact the regulatory commission and submit any reasons why the purchase of tickets by ticketmaster should not happen.
During the Ticketsummit in Las Vegas this past summer, representatives from an anonymous company & AEG were present for a meeting which was held in closed quarters upon which a business plan was introduced by the anonymous company to AEG’s representatives who were also there on behalf of ticketmaster.
The business plan itself included rolling up 6 major brokers across North America and Europe. The start up of a marketplace by creating a ticketboard in Europe and aligning all the individual brokers across Europe.
Also discussed was the purchase of ticketsnow and how much it would cost to do so. The company value as discussed was quoted at $200 million.
This could not be sold to ticketmaster because they already own the ticketexchange. We said the ticketexchange was going nowhere and were proven right by recent developments.
This information was obviously passed onto ticketmaster by the AEG representatives. Incase you did not know, AEG recently agreed to sell thier tickets through the ticketmaster exchange, to avoid fans complaining about high ticket prices and corner the secondary market.
The anonymous company’s representative encouraged not to purchase ticketsnow and instead to work with the brokers in creating their own board to have full control of their markets, clients, interests and industry and sell it as a publicly traded company.
The rep who was in the meeting on behalf of AEG and Ticketmaster “unofficial rep” agreed to other meetings for further discussions to follow up on the proposed business plan which never materialized.
This move by ticketmaster is to keep the brokers fractured and to buy time until digital ticketing technology which is presently being tested in Australia is implemented into their ticketing solutions. Also to solidify their monopoly.
I suggest any broker who has issues with the happenings which have occurred and has interest in the future of their business should contact the regulatory commission and submit any reasons why the purchase of “ticketsnow” by ticketmaster should not happen.
Here is a chance to get back at ticketmaster.
Have all the brokers pull their inventory off ticketsnow and watch the market dissapear.
Or save your money and buy shares when ticketmaster goes public.
Any suggestions how to get 900 brokers all to take their inventory off ticketsnow? All suggestions are accepted.
brokers should have a two day pull your stock off the board and show ticketsnow how we should be on the piesplit here or we walk. WHERE THE HELL IS THE NATB? And why the hell are we paying due’s for?
Guess you’ve been buying off ticketmaster your whole life.
Brokers are too greedy to pull their inventory down
TicketsNow is still an NATB member as of today, right? HA HA HA! Unreal. Keep sticking your heads in the sand NATB brokers….the day of your demise is nigh, are you just going to sit there and take it?
That’s right.
Ticketmaster actually has a huge interest in that market.
Thing is, it’s probably the worst thing to happen for the actual consumers. Since ticketmaster owns ticketsnow, it now has more interest in selling to scalpers than to legitimate customers. If a customer purchases a face-value ticket and uses the ticket himself, ticketmaster makes a profit once. If a scalper buys a ticket, takes it to ticketsnow.com and sells it again for many times the price, ticketmaster gets a profit twice. Ticketmaster now has a vested interest in allowing all of their tickets to be sold to third parties in mass quantity, causing the ticketmaster website to “Sell out” within minutes or even seconds after the event goes on sale, creating a false demand, convincing consumers there is a greater demand for these items than there is, making them more willing to pay the artificially inflated prices. We know the perceives demand is false because of the fact that scalped tickets to most major events are STILL AVAILABLE on the day of the event and many are never sold. This is frankly despicable and they should be taken to trial for monopolistic, anti-competitive, price gouging practices.
Ticket brokers have been robbing people for years. You guys should cry me a river. Ticketmaster, even being behind the times are catching up and taking your our own margin, and you are angry. Please.
If you think Ticketmaster is bad, look at yourself. Brokers created this situation.
Ticket Technology is an alternate POS that is owned entirely by brokers! You can be an owner and have a great POS.
People like you (people that slam Brokers) make me laugh for two reasons.
1) You were to dumb to get into the business when it was time to get in.
2) You don’t have the money to get into the business.
All you are is a person that is jealous because Brokers make a living on a product that you were to dumb to get into or are to broke to get into! All because people like you that are living pay check to pay check, does not mean that anyone that makes living on a business (that you are to broke to get into) are bad people.
CAN I ASKED THIS QUESTION, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING? AND DOES YOUR COMPANY MARK UP ITS PRODUCTS?
You call yourself and intelligent person? Smart and rich enought to get into a situation
yet you can’t write a simple paragraph. Learn the 5 W’s, you idiot and put a clear thought into what your trying to convey. Go back to school.