IT'S OFFICIAL!
Here's the press release.
Both stocks suffer losses as Wall Street gives thumbs down to deal.
(UPDATED) The merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation is a done deal and will be announced today. It be an all stock merger with the two companies combining as relative equals and cost savings of $40 million plus annually. In what is almost certain to become a clash of the titans, Ticketmaster's Barry Diller and Irving Azoff, as well as, Live Nation's Michael Rapino will all hold executive positions in the new company.
The merger logged an almost 87% disapproval rating in an onging informal poll of Hypebot readers as of Tuesday morning. Even though the two corporations are in different business (ticketing and live music respectively), the merger also seems likely to draw federal anti-trust scrutiny. Ticketmaster has
already come under fire an internal monopoly of the ticketing process after it directly linked from a Bruce Springsteen onsale to its self-owned reseller TicketsNow where seats were already onsale at higher prices.
The incident drew the ire of Springsteen himself who now openly opposes the merger as well as, competing resellers like LiveStub who warn of a closed ticketing eco-system that drives up prices. New York, New Jersey and several other state attorney generals have promised to investigate. A lawsuit was also filed in Canada this week over similar incident regarding a Smashing Pumpkins ticket sale.
What do you think of a combined Ticketmaster and Live Nation? Comment below and vote here.
