Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2006 and currently serves more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, museums, and theaters. In 2006, the company sold more than 128 million tickets valued at over $7 billion on behalf of its clients. 3
Of course, most of Ticketmaster’s customers don’t have the money or expertise to run their own online ticketing sites. So a new crop of companies has emerged to help them. “When you outsource your ticketing, you lose the touch point with your customers,” says Tom Gillis of Capital Tickets, which runs ticketing for the Ottawa Senators hockey team and several large venues in the Ottawa area. Instead of steering buyers to Ticketmaster, the Senators keep fans on its own website (and the revenue from online ads) using software by Paciolan. Jim Royce of the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles switched from Ticketmaster to Dallas-based Tessitura’s software because it allows him to identify first-time buyers and cultivate them, sending restaurant suggestions and e-mail reminders before the show. 6
Ticketmaster is engaged in the business of providing automated ticketing services to various arenas and other sites located throughout the United States and elsewhere. It maintains approximately 2,700 remote ticketing outlets in 44 states in the United States and 16 domestic phone centers, as well as operations in England, Mexico and Australia. Its annual ticket sales for its clients currently exceed $1.6 billion and, on information and belief, it is the world’s largest provider of computerized ticket distribution products and services to producers and promoters of entertainment events. 2
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2006, Ticketmaster serves more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, museums, and theaters, and sold 119 million tickets valued at $6 billion in 2005. Ticketmaster is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI). 4
As the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing and marketing company, Ticketmaster connects the world to live entertainment. Established in 1976, Ticketmaster serves more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for leading arenas, stadiums, professional sports franchises and leagues, college sports teams, performing arts venues, museums, and theaters. In 2007, the company sold more than 142 million tickets valued at over $8.3 billion on behalf of its clients. Ticketmaster is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI). 10
To protect its turf, the company is launching a major counterattack. That includes building a service for the secondary market called TicketExchange, buying stakes in online music startups, and investing heavily in technologies that could allow it to provide better marketing data and sell more tickets than rivals. “Everyone is looking at ways they can provide more value to their clients and consumers and artists,” says Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty. “The road is not always smooth.” 8
Ticketmaster is a ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. Typically, Ticketmaster’s clients (arenas, stadiums, and theatres) control their events, and Ticketmaster simply acts as an agent, selling the tickets that the clients make available to them. 7
Ticketmaster celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2006 and currently serves more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, museums, and theaters. In 2006, the company sold more than 128 million tickets valued at over $7 billion on behalf of its clients. Ticketmaster is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI). 9
The deal underscores the growing importance of the secondary ticketing market as it emerges from the shadowy world of scalpers and enters the mainstream through Internet marketplaces. Increasingly, season ticket owners and other ticket holders are using various Internet exchanges to unload their tickets on a game-by-game basis. It also reflects the rising pressure on Ticketmaster to beef up its business, as the company preps for the possibility that corporate parent IAC/Interactive (IACI) may put it up for sale. Ticketmaster also stands to lose its huge contract with concert-promoting giant Live Nation (LYVAL) at the end of 2008. 5
