Ticketmaster Acquires Front Line Entertainment - Management Company For GUNS N’ ROSES TO VAN HALEN, AEROSMITH
October 24, 2008, 16 years ago
The following report is courtesy of Heidi N. Moore from the Wall Street Journal:
GUNS N' ROSES recently announced that on November 23 it will release the album, Chinese Democracy, after a 17-year wait (you can watch the online countdown clock here).
Ticketmaster, which just bought Guns N’ Roses’s management company, won’t have that kind of patience to see if it struck a good deal.
Ticketmaster is spending $123 million for a controlling stake in Front Line Entertainment, which represents artists ranging from GUNS N’ ROSES TO VAN HALEN, FLEETWOOD MAC and AEROSMITH. Front Line CEO Irving Azoff–who has managed the Eagles for 34 years–will become CEO of Ticketmaster, reporting to Chairman Barry Diller. In August, Ticketmaster was one of the five companies spun off in the splitup of IAC/Interactive.
Ticketmaster needs the deal to expand its revenue stream beyond the ticketing business, which is under pressure. Ticketmaster’s contract with its biggest referrer, LiveNation, comes up at the end of the year. Live Nation provided as much as 17% of Ticketmaster’s 2007 revenue. But LiveNation has plans for its own ticket service, with Citigroup analysts noting in September that “Live Nation is clearly committed to growing its ticketing services beyond its core venues through a third party ticketing offering.”
Read more here.
