Live Nation Entertainment Acquires French Ticketing Company Ticketnet
By Live Nation Entertainment Inc., PRNEMonday, November 8, 2010
LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2010 - Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. ("Live Nation") (NYSE: LYV) today
announced the acquisition of Ticketnet, the second largest ticket retailer in
France.
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 EUR4 billion 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.
Jon Wiffen, PR Manager, jon.wiffen at ticketmaster.co.uk, Tel. +44(0)207-980-4412
Tags: belgium, california, France, Live Nation Entertainment Inc., Los angeles, Luxembourg, November 9