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Well, it makes sense on a practical level. All you have to do is zip down San Vincente from Ticketmaster's WeHo HQ on Sunset, hang a right on Santa Monica and bingo, a few blocks past the Troubadour is LiveNation's Beverly Hills HQ. Or, in these lean times, executives can just catch the #4 bus, which will carry them down Santa Monica Blvd. for $1.25, a small fraction of the service charge that both companies demand of the music lovers, whose passion fills their pocketbooks.

We offer no analysis of the deal. You can learn everything you need to know about the biggest music biz merger of the 21st Century, a convergence that will not only change the national concert industry, but cause tidal waves in the Los Angeles music community, as well, by reading how each describes itself to its owners, the companies' shareholders. SEC requirements dictate transparency (or at least are supposed to), so the below info is relatively unfiltered.

Ticketmaster, in its own words, from its corporate site:

Ticketmaster connects the world to live entertainment. Ticketmaster operates in 20 global markets, providing ticket sales, ticket resale services, marketing and distribution throughwww.ticketmaster.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet; approximately 6,700 retail outlets; and 19 worldwide call centers. Established in 1976, Ticketmaster serves more than 10,000 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 141 million tickets valued at over $8.3 billion on behalf of its clients. Ticketmaster Entertainment acquired a controlling interest in Front Line Management Group in October 2008. Founded by Irving Azoff and Howard Kaufman in 2004, Front Line is the world's leading artist management company, with nearly 200 clients and more than 80 executive managers. Front Line represents a wide range of major artists, including the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Nicks, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Chicago, Journey, and Guns N' Roses. Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is headquartered in West Hollywood, California (NASDAQ:TKTM).

And LiveNation, from its corporate site:

Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 16,000 concerts for 1,500 artists in 57 countries. The company sells over 45 million concert tickets a year and expects to drive over 60 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com in 2008. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry's first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol “LYV.”

Globally, we own, operate, have booking rights for and/or have an equity interest in more than 155 venues, including House of Blues® music venues and prestigious locations such as The Fillmore in San Francisco, Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in New York and London's Wembley Arena. In addition, we also produce, promote or host theatrical, specialized motor sports and other live entertainment events. In 2007, we connected over 64 million fans, including over 45 million live music fans, with

their favorite performers at approximately 28,000 events in 18 countries around the world.

Our strategy is to connect the artist to the fan. We believe that this focus will enable us to increase shareholder value by developing new ancillary revenue streams around the live music event and the artist themselves. We will continue to focus on our live music assets. We plan to expand our business through building a stronger connection with the fan through the live event and our ticketing platform. We will seek to connect

corporate sponsors with this fan through the live music experience.

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