Ticketmaster, Live Nation: Obama’s Antitrust Test

24 June, 2009 at 2:39 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment

“… angry independent concert promoters to frustrated music fans, has been drumming the Department of Justice to block the deal, claiming the merger will create a conglomerate that will shut out competition and lead to higher ticket prices. This is deemed by many to be the first test case in the Obama Administration,“

The antitrust concerns are twofold.

First, there’s the so-called horizontal impact, which refers to when a company buys out a rival to eliminate competition. In this case, the merger will stop Live Nation’s recently launched ticketing company from cutting in on Ticketmaster’s turf. (TM saw its profits dive 78% in the first quarter)

Second, there’s the vertical impact, which refers to the company’s expansion into all parts of the live-music industry, from managing artists to selling beer and hot dogs at venues. “They’ll be the concert promoter, the ticketing company, the merchandise company, the agent, the manager — they’ll be everything,“

“The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you,” Bruce Springsteen said after a ticket fiasco in New Jersey in February steered buyers to a secondary market the company owns where tickets were being hawked at up to five times face value.

BUT as posted here last week Even The Boss Can’t Cross TM Without Being Hung Out to Dry Publicly!

Ooops how embarassing Bruuuuuuuuce!!

READ THE ARTICLE<<

About these ads