(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070220/LATU096LOGO)

Live Nation and Luger have worked closely together since Live Nation’s initial 49% investment in Luger and 25% investment in Moondog over ten years ago.

The acquisition adds significant promotion and festival expertise to Live Nation Sweden, with Luger having promoted concerts by artists including Coldplay, Arcade Fire, White Stripes and Duffy, and also having successfully established three festivals in Sweden: Way Out West, Accelerator and Where the Action Is, the latter in partnership with Live Nation.

Ola Broquist, Patrik Fredriksson and Morgan Johansson, the founders of Luger, will remain with the company, as will the rest of their staff.

“We are pleased to welcome the Luger and Moondog teams to Live Nation Sweden. The combination of the strengths of these two companies with those of Live Nation will further reinforce our leadership in Sweden’s live music market, allowing us to provide an enhanced experience to fans, artists and our corporate partners,” said Carl Pernow, President Live Nation Nordics.

“We are very excited to now have the opportunity to access Live Nation’s broad range of skills in order to further develop the success of Luger and Moondog,” said Ola Broquist, Managing Director of Luger.

Luger was founded in Sandviken in 1991 and has been located in Stockholm since 1998. As well as being a leading promoter of international acts and producer of festivals, Luger has a large agency operation and represents almost one hundred Swedish artists, including Britta Persson, Adam Tensta, The Hellacopters, The Hives, Petter, Teddybears Sthlm and Moneybrother.

Luger’s sister company, Moondog Entertainment, is a management company representing such artists as Jose Gonzalez, Caesars, The (International) Noise Conspiracy and The Hellacopters.

Where the Action Is took place in Stockholm this weekend with the Foo Fighters headlining. The 2nd edition of Way Out West takes place in Gothenberg on 7-9 August, with Neil Young headlining. Upcoming concerts for Live Nation Sweden include Bruce Springsteen (4-5 July), Iron Maiden (16 and 26 July), REM (7 September) and Coldplay (18 September).

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.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070220/LATU096LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, [email protected]

SOURCE: Live Nation