NEW YORK, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A possible merger between U.S. entertainment giants Ticketmaster and Live Nation could run into antitrust problems, industry experts said.
The merger between the ticket seller and the venue owner "could be the most important deal that's ever happened in the music industry," Ray Waddell at Billboard told USA Today.
But, "the saga has only begun," said David Joyce of trading firm Miller Tabak. "We do not think that regulatory approval is going to be a slam-dunk," he wrote in a report.
In 2008, each company sought to move in on the other's turf with Live Nation saying it would sell its own tickets beginning in January and Ticketmaster purchasing controlling interest in a company that handles acts such as the Eagles, Steely Dan and Aerosmith, the newspaper said.
Primary Wave Music Publishing Chief Executive Officer Larry Mestel said, "tickets will be based on supply and demand," but the merger could enable the two companies to control both ticket prices and fees for performers, USA Today reported.
"The big question you want to ask is how upset will other concert promoters and the artists be?" said Joseph Simons, an anti-trust attorney at Paul Weiss law firm.
