In an interview that aired today, February 4, on Fox Business, TicketNetwork CEO and founder Don Vaccaro told host Alexis Glick that consumers could lose out if Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation were to merge. See the video below.
The two industry heavyweights are in the midst of merger talks, and if the deal is allowed to close it would virtually control all aspects of the concert industry. Prior to news breaking about the proposed merger, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey called on the Federal Trade Commission and the anti-trust arm of the Department of Justice to investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and its subsidiary TicketsNow, a secondary ticket company.
“Over the last month, we’ve seen Live Nation and Ticketmaster compete in the ticketing market, and we’ve seen Ticketmaster actually sell some tickets without any service fees on them. We don’t think that that practice would continue if the companies merged, so ultimately we think that it would be bad for consumers,” Vaccaro said.
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“Over the last month, we’ve seen Live Nation and Ticketmaster compete in the ticketing market, and we’ve seen Ticketmaster actually sell some tickets without any service fees on them. We don’t think that that practice would continue if the companies merged…
Seriously?!
It doesn’t matter if the companies merged – Ticketmaster has been trying for YEARS to get artists, their management, and venues to all agree that ALL-IN-PRICING is a great idea, and that exposing customers to ticket fees is just plain stupid.
The Eagles did it because their manager, Irving Azoff, helped broker all the parties involved. This is the future of pricing, merger or not.
Isn’t it clear that Don is an idiot, and not only made himself sound like an idiot, but tried to legitimize his company w/o giving the credit where credit is due. Your sales are OUR sales. All you do is mediate the transaction. Its only going to be a few years before TN will go out of business based on thier shady business practices.