Regulators Mount Up; Ticketmaster / Live Nation Merger Hitting Major Snags

Frankly, in looking at the Pacolian website, I cannot even determine what this company does or why this would make the faintest difference in alleviating anti-trust concerns. Realistically, the crux of this merger aims to exploit anti-competitive synergies, hence slicing off small segments of either company would likely not make the combined entity any less monopolistic. A recent article in the Atlantic put this in perspective quite well…

I’m not sure how you get around a merger providing close to 80% control of concert ticketing and promotion. In order to do so, I’d imagine there are some pretty creative minds trying to find concessions that will trick satisfy the Justice Department so that the merger can go through.

Finally, as pointed out in the big Wall Street Journal article last week about the merger, this high profile doozy represents the first under the Obama administration and falls right in their wheelhouse for a case whereby they can showcase the changing of the guard.

The merger, formally proposed in February, is the first high-profile combination to come up for antitrust review during the Obama administration, and it is attracting attention far beyond the confines of the music business. Under President George W. Bush, the Justice Department rarely blocked mergers based on antitrust concerns, but the Obama administration has signaled it will take a tougher stance.

Not to get ahead of ourselves too much here, but it looks as though Uncle Sam might just take care of us music fans this time and keep these two behemoths from mating. Sources say a decision will not likely be reached before the end of 2009 or possibly delay into 2010, but if I were a betting man, I’d guess this thing drags on and on and ultimately just fizzles out.

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