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Live Nation President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Rapino commented, "This is a monumental step forward in the evolution of Live Nation into a next generation music company. Eventim is the most technologically sophisticated ticketing platform in the world. Live Nation will use its most important asset, the concert ticket, to build artist careers and customer relationships, forge innovative sponsorship deals, create a fan and artist friendly secondary ticketing platform and provide a ticketing alternative for third-party venues. We believe that our partnership with Eventim will allow us to execute on this transformational vision."
CTS Eventim Chief Executive Officer Klaus-Peter Schulenberg added, "Eventim is at the forefront of ticketing innovation across Europe, and we share Live Nation’s passion for enhancing the fan ticketing experience. We will provide the infrastructure and technology required to reshape how Live Nation consumers access ticket inventory and enable ancillary revenue opportunities, while vastly improving the overall fan ticketing experience."
The agreement secures for Live Nation a world-class ticketing engine for limited investment, catapulting LiveNation.com into a best-in-class e-commerce site. The new ticketing platform will allow Live Nation to control customer data, to create enhanced ticket-based concert products and to capitalize on expanded distribution channels and sponsorship opportunities.
The Eventim platform has innovative service offerings including interactive seating maps, mobile distribution, integrated primary and secondary ticketing, alternative access models (auctions, lottery, etc.), print-at-home, radio frequency identification (RFID) ticketing and unparalleled customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities.
Live Nation will host an investor call in early January to present the details of the partnership.
ABOUT LIVE NATION:
Live Nation is the future of the music business. With the most live concerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the most comprehensive concert search engine on the web, Live Nation is revolutionizing the music industry: onstage and online. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional information about the company can be found at http://www.livenation.com/ under the "About Us" section.
ABOUT CTS EVENTIM:
CTS Eventim is the second largest ticketing company in the world (and the largest in Europe) with annual sales of more 60 million tickets during 2007. CTS Eventim currently operates in 17 countries, with over 2,000 clients, including promoters, sports teams and venues. The Eventim software boasts a flexible architecture that seamlessly handled the 2006 World Cup. At its peak, the system processed over 3 million tickets in a single day and handled over 30 million inquiries in the first hour the event went on sale.
First Call Analyst:
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SOURCE: Live Nation