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Financial updates: Universal, Live Nation
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 1 March 2013
A quick summary of some financial updates released this week. And firstly Universal Music owner Vivendi admitted its profits were down, 17.8% in the last quarter of 2012 and 13.6% for the year, though the results were better than expected.
Net profit for the year was 2.55 billion euros, with the group’s gaming company Activision Blizzard compensating for a continued slide in revenues at Vivendi’s French mobile business SFR. Universal Music saw sales and earnings improve, with 525 million euros in earnings from 4.54 billion euros in sales.
Over at the other big player in music, Live Nation, losses for the year were up, from $83 million to $163.2 million. Declines in the European market and artist management related revenues contributed to the widening losses, though costs related to the departure of co-top man Irving Azoff at the very end of last year also contributed to the losses leap – there being $5.5 million in costs directly relating to his exiting and another $62.7 million in write-downs on the talent division he led.
The live giant’s CEO Michael Rapino remained upbeat though, saying an overhaul of the company’s Ticketmaster platform, an expanded festivals business and new ventures in Asia and Latin America provided great opportunities for future growth.
