Home

Irving Azoff

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.
tags: Deals | Music | Acquisitions | Live Nation | Cablevision | Ticketmaster | Ticketing | Van Halen | Front Line Management | Irving Azoff | AEG Live |

Ticketmaster Probed on Secondary Sales; Backs Schumer Bill

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 6, 2009 - 10:13am.
Washington - Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM) has been subpoenaed or received requests for information from the Justice Dept., Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New Jersey's Attorney General over the resale of tickets on secondary ticketing websites, Reuters reported, citing TicketNews.com. Bruce Springsteen and many of his fans complained when they were recently directed to purchase tickets at greatly inflated prices on Ticketmaster's TicketsNow secondary ticket sales website before all available tickets to the concerts on Ticketmaster.com were sold out.
tags: Law | Policy | Music | FTC | DOJ | Ticketing | TicketsNow | Irving Azoff | Chuck Schumer |

Azoff-managed Artists Lobby Congress for Ticketmaster Merger

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 12, 2009 - 12:49pm.
Los Angeles - In letters to Congress expressing their support for the proposed merger of concert promoter Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) and Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM), several high-profile artists neglected to mention that they are represented or co-managed by Irving Azoff, the founder of Front Line Management who also recently became CEO of Ticketmaster, Hypebot reported. Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins -- who also testified before Congress this week on the Performance Rights Act -- as well as Eddie Van Halen, Seal, and several members of Journey all sent letters advocating for regulatory approval of the merger. However, neither Ticketmaster nor the artists themselves denoted the connection between the musicians and the company, according to Hypebot.

tags: Deals | Music | Acquisitions | Live Nation | Ticketmaster | Ticketing | Irving Azoff | Billy Corgan |

WSJ: Top Artists "Scalping" Own Tickets on Resale Sites

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 12, 2009 - 8:54am.
New York - A number of top music artists, including Neil Diamond, Britney Spears, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Billy Joel and Elton John, are partnering with Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM) to sell some premium tickets to their concerts on a secondary ticket exchange for hundreds of dollars more than face value, The Wall Street Journal reported. Several managers of top artists and Ticketmaster executives told The Journal that the company "routinely offers to list hundreds of the best tickets per concert on one of its two resale Web sites -- and divides the extra revenue, which can amount to more than $2 million on a major tour, with artists and promoters."
tags: Music | Ticketmaster | Britney Spears | TicketExchange | Ticketing | TicketsNow | Irving Azoff | Neil Diamond |

Ticketmaster Buys Azoff's Front Line for $123M; Layoffs Loom

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 23, 2008 - 8:26am.

Los Angeles - Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM) announced on Thursday that it will acquire a controlling equity interest in Front Line Management, the large artist management firm run by Irving Azoff, from Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) for about $123 million in cash. Ticketmaster said it will also change its name to Ticketmaster Entertainment, and name Azoff CEO of the company.

tags: Deals | Music | Acquisitions | Layoffs | Ticketmaster | Ticketing | Front Line Management | Irving Azoff |