By Jim McCarthy Feb 3, 2011 0 comments

AEG Leaves Ticketmaster

Here’s the news: AEG, owners of Staples Center, several MLS teams, arenas around the country and major promoter of concerts through its AEG Live division, is leaving Ticketmaster.

Back when the LN-TM merger was approved, AEG got the right to license the TM software rather than be a full-fledged TM customer.  This wasn’t a bad arrangement for AEG potentially, with Ticketmaster earning just a $1 a ticket for every AEG ticket sold, despite the fact that they’d have to service all of AEG’s buyers.  Still, AEG has decided instead to phase out Ticketmaster as its seller and use Outbox Technology instead, which is now led by former Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen.

This isn’t a great surprise in that it’s very predictable that AEG, who sees Live Nation as a direct competitor, would perhaps want to keep its data to itself and not put any money in the hands of Live Nation.  I thought perhaps they would acquire a company and do their ticketing in house, but this works for them too.

For Live Nation, it’s a loss.  It’s not a huge financial loss because they weren’t making much on the arrangement they accepted with the merger.  It might even have been a money loser for them.  It is a loss of volume, however, and another strong argument in favor of venues who were once thought to have no alternatives but Ticketmaster finding viable replacements for them.

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