Word: mergerism
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...What's there to like about this merger? The combined company will effectively cut out middlemen, such as independent concert promoters, business managers, lawyers, agents and venue owners who want a piece of the pie, and allow artists to deliver services "quicker, faster, better and cheaper" to its fans, said Luke Froeb, associate professor at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management and a former senior economist with the FTC and Justice Department. From a stock perspective, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney sees significantly bigger growth than Ticketmaster would enjoy...
...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. Live Nation dumped its ticketing contract with Ticketmaster in January after signing a 10-year contract to license ticketing software from Europe's CTS Eventim to run its own ticketing business. The move took a toll on Ticketmaster, which saw its profits dive 78% in the first quarter, partly due to the lost Live...
...didn't help Ticketmaster's merger prospects when it found itself in hot water over the Springsteen ticketing controversy in February. Basically, fans were told that tickets were sold out minutes after they went on sale and were automatically diverted to Ticketmaster's resale company, TicketsNow, where they were forced to pay scalper prices for the tickets. "That was just an outrageous event," said Landau. The Boss himself rallied fans against the Ticketmaster merger. "The one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming...
...said it was a computer glitch - ha-ha - I nearly fell off my chair," said Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, the country's second largest concert promoter. "I could not believe it. I mean, these are sophisticated businessmen - my God, a computer glitch?" Not surprisingly, Phillips opposes the merger and has even suggested he may cancel his seven-year contract with Ticketmaster if the deal goes through...
...this puts a cloud over Ticketmaster's merger plans. "I think [the merger] would be a catastrophe for the entertainment business," said Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat who demanded congressional hearings into the matter. "Given Ticketmaster's recent mishandling of Bruce Springsteen's tour and other shows, it is clear that this company's questionable business practices warrant sharper scrutiny." Earlier this week, the Congressman introduced a bill, named the Boss Act, that calls for ticketing companies to disclose how many tickets are being withheld in primary public ticket sales and a 48-hour waiting period before tickets...