After months of speculation and reels of red tape, the world’s biggest live music company has been created by the combination of the two giants Ticketmaster and Live Nation have finally secured approval from the necessary legal bodies to go ahead with their merger. The company formed is now called Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., and TKTM’s stock ceased trading at close on the 25th. According to Reuters, common stock in Ticketmaster will be exchanged for 1.474 shares of stock in the new entity. This news has seen a massive jump in the share price of both companies, and will undoubtedly have a seismic effect throughout the live music world over the coming year.
Hypebot reports that the US Justice Department is close to a positive ruling on whether or not to allow a merger between live music giants Live Nation (LYV) and Ticket Master (TKTM). The deal has already been approved by UK bodies, and if it goes ahead will create the biggest live music and ticket sales company in the world (hence the scrutiny from monopoly legislators). Shares in both companies have jumped more than 3.5% after this hopeful news, but are still more than a third down on their pre-crash values (Aug ‘08).
The live music industry has seen a difficult couple of years, with a lot of smaller festivals being postponed or cancelled – consolidation makes a lot of sense for these two big companies, and we’ve seen them selling underperforming assets and shedding debt, I’d guess the upshot will be more uniform ticket prices, and a smaller range of venues being played by massive artists as they get signed to lucrative exclusives by the newborn giant as it exploits the new confidence inevitably born of being the biggest player in the market. 
Snapshot via Google's Finance service
The two live entertainment giants released profit reports today, Ticketmaster having gained on last year’s figures, and Live Nation having declined slightly, year on year. The real news here is that talks for the merging of the two companies are looking positive, and the deal is looked for at the beginning of next year, a forecast that has seen the stock price of both companies jump by almost 10% in a single morning’s trading. Both companies are capped at over $600m, and will look for massive marketing and staffing synergies from a merger, hopefully amking them both a lot more profitable. You can read Live Nation’s press releases and filings here: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=194146&p=irol-irhome
It remains to be seen whether this is good news for the gig-going public, as there’ll be almost no-one in the UK market able to compete with the giant that’s created for running really big mainstream gigs, and a lack of competition means there’s no need to keep ticket prices down and beat your neighbour.
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