Should Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation decide to merge, the alliance would become an impressive authority in the music industry and would also represent an initial examination of the Obama administration’s perspective with regard to concentrated corporate power, especially in a domain that may actually have a strong impact on consumers.

 

Bruce Sokler, a lawyer in the Washington office of Mintz Levin, who aims at antitrust matters, told the New York Times that the situation “is likely to have reasonably intense scrutiny.” The two companies have been in merger negotiations and could announce an agreement as early as Friday, in spite of the fact that they are expected to make an announcement next week, the New York Times cited two unnamed people related to the matter as saying.

 

The pact of Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation would gather leading forces under the same roof, thus combining all domains of the live concert business, such as the sake of tickets, the organization of concert halls, as well as the representation of musicians.

 

With regard to ticket business, 30 percent of the $21 billion events market last year belonged to Ticketmaster, according to figures by Forrester Research. In addition, in the concert field, Ticketmaster’s market share was almost 70 percent, the newspaper cited Scott W. Devitt, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, as saying. Mr. Devitt also explained that Live Nation, as a promoter of concerts, is three times more important than its nearest opponent, the Anschutz Entertainment Group.