WSJ: Ticketmaster, Scalpers Explored Deal to Sink Live Nation

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 28, 2009 - 9:41am.

New York - Current Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM) CEO Irving Azoff met with a group of leading ticket brokers in 2007 in a bid to try to corner the market for secondary tickets, just as rival Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) announced plans to develop its own ticketing service independent of Ticketmaster, The Wall Street Journal reported. Azoff was still heading his Front Line Entertainment management firm -- in which Ticketmaster had a stake -- when he met with six large ticket brokers, and an offer was made for Ticketmaster to acquire them for as much as $25 million each.

Reportedly present at the meeting with Azoff were executives from AEG Live; IAC's (NASD: IACI) Ticketmaster; Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) MSG Entertainment -- which owns Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall; and ticket brokers Ace Ticket, based in Boston; Barry's Tickets Service (Los Angeles); Total Tickets (Ft. Lauderdale); Gold Coast Tickets (Chicago); Elite Ticket Service (New York); and Alliance Tickets (Denver, Las Vegas, Seattle).

A person who attended the meeting recalled for The Journal that Azoff and other executives emphasized that their combined entity "was going to crush Live Nation."

The deal reportedly fell apart due to "mutual distrust," as "neither side was confident it would get accurate accounting from the other," sources told The Journal.

However, a trial of the arrangement was hatched in the fall of 2007, when top seats to 20 concerts by Van Halen -- a band repped by Azoff -- were shunted from Ticketmaster to the brokers, who kept 30% of the scalped ticket price while Ticketmaster, the band and its handlers kept the rest.

Van Halen reportedly reaped at least $1 million from the arrangement.

Ticketmaster has since proposed a $2.5 billion merger with Live Nation, which is currently undergoing antitrust review.

http://www.ticketmaster.com

http://www.livenation.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Azoff