Concert promoter Live Nation and ticketing giant Ticketmaster announced Tuesday morning that they plan an all-stock merger. The combined company will be called Live Nation Entertainment. This merger of course is pending approval by the government. Many think that they will get strict scrutiny by the antitrust review because they hold such a large share of the marketplace. Read more here. The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, has come out against the merger posting a statement on his Web site saying a deal with Live Nation could end up "returning us to a near-monopoly situation in music ticketing."
Commentary: Despite what Live Nation Entertainment claim, this will most likely hurt consumers by killing all competition and driving ticket prices up even more. Without competition there will be very little incentive to stop them from raising service charges.
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