Home › DMW Daily › February 17, 2009

Shareholder Suit Claims Ticketmaster Took Lousy Merger Terms

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 17, 2009 - 11:42am.
Los Angeles - Shareholders of Ticketmaster Entertainment (NASD: TKTM) have filed a class action suit against the company, alleging that Ticketmaster agreed to unfavorable terms in its proposed $2.5 billion merger with concert promotion giant Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

Under the terms, Ticketmaster shareholders would receive 1.38 shares of the merged Live Nation Entertainment for every Ticketmaster share owned.

The suit argues that Ticketmaster's executives exploited the economic downturn, with company shares down nearly 40% in recent months, to secure a deal not beneficial to shareholders -- while they themselves "secured benefits for themselves outside of the deal to the detriment of Ticketmaster's public shareholders."

The shareholders are asking a court to block the merger, which is already under antitrust review by the Justice Department.

Ticketmaster was hit with a separate class action last week in Canada, where consumers say they were unfairly shunted to the company's TicketsNow auction marketplace to purchase tickets that were still available at face value on Ticketmaster.com.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/c2ooc (LA Business Journal)

Published in DMW Daily, February 17, 2009
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Music | Live Nation | Ticketmaster | Investments | Ticketing |



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