The Stage

Competition Commission approves Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger

Published Wednesday 23 December 2009 at 10:42 by Michael Quinn

The Competition Commission has cleared the way for the controversial merger between multi-national concert promoter Live Nation and ticketing giant Ticketmaster.

The surprise move reverses the regulator’s initial opposition to the union between the two global brands over concerns that it would limit customer choice and lead to rising costs. The commission’s Christopher Clarke said that in the light of new evidence supplied by the two California-headquartered companies, “we concluded it was unlikely that the merged entity would harm other ticketing agencies, promoters or venues”.

Ticketmaster currently sells almost half of all live music tickets sold in the UK and achieved global sales of £5.6 billion in 2008. Live Nation accounts for a fifth of all live music events in the UK, and sold 50 million tickets last year. The combined value of the new company (to be called Live Nation Entertainment) is estimated to be more than £1.75 billion.

Chris Edmonds, managing director of Ticketmaster UK, welcomed the decision, saying it would “create a new kind of live entertainment business”.

But the Competition Commission also warned that if the newly merged company moved to limit choice for music fans, it would “suffer significant and immediate losses with very uncertain prospects for long-term gain”.