Live Nation and Ticketmaster Merge In Progress - Monopoly In The Making?

So just one week after Phish phucked Live Nations in-house ticketing service and just one week after I - and thousands of others actually - praised Ticketmaster for not blowing, they somehow managed to shoot themselves in the leg too.

On February 2 at 9:00, the Bruce Springsteen on-sale commenced for his Working On A Dream Tour. However, unlike the overpopulation that crashed Live Nations site, TM spokesman Albert Lopez, states that the glitch occurred on Ticketmaster’s side of the net and affected only certain shows. With this being said, many fans disagree with Lopez and state that this issue was occurring throughout many of the east coast shows.

Bottom line, both Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s services blew two HUGE tours and proved to be ineffective ticketing services in these cases. Now the interesting aspect surrounding these two juggernauts is the rumors of a possible merging.

Live Nation broke away from Ticketmaster at the end of 2008 by launching their personal in-house ticketing service. Now that they have gotten nothing but negative reviews in their early steps along with Ticketmaster’s recent blunder, the two companies are growing very close to becoming one.

This has been a losing battle for both companies since the dived as Live Nations stock as slumped to less than $5.00 per share and Ticketmaster has gone from $27.00 per share to a messily $3.33 per share. So in both company’s eyes, the solution to this detrimental slug-fest is merging.

The combo of the two would yield a new single powerhouse in the ticketing industry called Live Nation Ticketmaster and would hold the reigns of all promotions, tickets and management. Evidently the two are deep in negotiations and are moving quickly towards an agreement that might be reached as early as next week. If this merger does reach an agreement, I’m sure we’ll all be seeing the monopoly that Live Nation was trying to end which means high service fees and over 200 artists under their belt. Live Nation Ticketmaster is in the works so lets see where the negotiations lead and what fees come along with it, until then, fans will have to deal with both Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s inadequate ticketing services.