25
Jan
2010
LINK
In a ruling that certainly will impact on the future of live entertainment, the Department of Justice has approved the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The DOJ had been examining the potential union of the two companies for a year and some observers had expected that the government would determine that the merger violates the country’s antitrust laws. As it now stands, the new entity brings together a soup to nuts approach by owning: many major music venues, the nation’s major ticketing company, the country’s largest event promoter and also Irving Azoff’s powerful Front Line Management group. While some had suspected that the government would require Ticketmaster to divest itself of its TicketsNow secondary ticketing site, the DOJfailed to make this a condition of the merger.Call or write to your congressmen and women to voice your displeasure that this has passed. It will undoubtedly hurt live music fans, especially in these harsh economic times.
Epic fail, DoJ. This is bad, bad news.
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