Live Nation And Ticketmaster Both Beat Analysts' Pre-Merger Expectations

Live Nation and Ticketmaster each reported better than expected Q3 earnings yesterday and both blamed slimmer profits on a combined $12 million in merger-related costs.

Coming off the busy summer concert months, Live Nation earned $69.2 million ($.78 a share) down more than 50% from last year's Q3 earnings of $138 million ($1.66 a share). Analyst had predicted a loss of $.24 a share.  Quarterly revenues were $1.81 billion, up 14% percent from $1.59 billion a year ago. In a call last month Live Nation CEO told me that special promotions, no fee tickets discounting were helping sales and the company reported a 12% jump in concert tickets was reported during the call.

Ticketmaster saw an increase in Q3 profits earning $13.1M ($.22 a share up from $9.6M a year ago. Ticketmaster also beat analyst estimates of of 18 cents a share earnings. Revenues were up slightly to $347.9M from $336.4M a year ago.

Federal regulators here and abroad continue to examine the possible merger, and shareholders of the two companies will vote on the deal Jan. 8th.