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Business News Live Business
Ticketmaster profits down down down
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 13 May 2009
Ticketmaster profits for the first quarter were down 78%, which is rather a lot, though I think we were expecting that.
First quarter financials were released on Tuesday, with the slump blamed in part of the loss of Live Nation’s ticketing business, which the mega concert promoter took in house at the start of the year. Ironically, of course, Ticketmaster is now trying to merge with Live Nation, and costs relating to the merger also hit the ticketing giant’s profits.
The much previously reported merger still needs regulator approval in the US and probably in Europe too. Some say that the merger will give the combined Ticketmaster/Live Nation too big a hold over the live music sector.
Though given the impact the loss of Live Nation as a client has clearly had on Ticketmaster, you can see why they want the merger to go ahead. It’s also worth noting that the only bits of the ticketing company to see revenues rise are those that aren’t involved in ticketing, so any deal which sees the company further diversify is obviously attractive. To shareholders if not competitors.
