LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (“Live Nation”) (NYSE: LYV) today announced the acquisition of Ticketnet, the second largest ticket retailer in France.
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This acquisition marks a significant step in Live Nation’s global expansion strategy and complements its growing concert promotion activities in France. By combining these assets, Live Nation will strengthen its ability to serve major clients and venues across France, while opening up significant partnership opportunities.
Ticketnet is a leading provider of complete ticketing solutions in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, offering a broad ticketing retail network with ticket distribution, ticketing software editing and ticket management capabilities. Ticketnet retails 6.6 million tickets annually for more than 40,000 events each year with a team of 100 employees. Ticketnet provides a real time ticketing platform serving venues and event promoters via the internet, 750 retail sales points, call centers, WAP and many of France‘s workers councils. Ticketnet will continue to be led by Francois Thominet, Managing Director.
“This is a significant acquisition that will allow Live Nation to strengthen and expand its presence in a 4 billion euro ticketing market that has been growing 5% annually,” said Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation. “Ticketnet will accelerate our development in the 5th largest music market in the world, and the combination of our existing concert business and Ticketnet will enable us to provide an enhanced service to the clients of both businesses.”
“We are pleased to announce the completion of this transaction and to continue Live Nation’s growth and expansion within Europe,” said Alan Ridgeway, CEO of Live Nation International. “I’m delighted that Francois Thominet is staying with the company and will be continuing the great work that he has already done to establish Ticketnet as a market-leading full service ticket retailer and distributor in France. Through Ticketnet, Live Nation intends to further develop its commercial relationships with all the constituents of the French entertainment market: venues, producers and local promoters.”
“We are excited about the opportunity to see Ticketnet continue to grow in the French marketplace while taking full advantage of all the resources and experience that Live Nation has to offer,” said Francois Thominet, Managing Director, Ticketnet. “I’m personally looking forward to working with Alan and his team as part of Live Nation. The Ticketnet team believes in the Live Nation strategy and is enthusiastic about the next phase of Ticketnet’s development.”
About Live Nation Entertainment:
Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE-LYV) is the largest live entertainment company in the world: connecting 200 million fans to 100,000 events in over 40 countries which has made Ticketmaster.com the #3 eCommerce website in the world. For additional information, visit www.livenation.com/investors.