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Producing live concerts that drew over 6 million music fans in 2007, CIE generated more than $1 billion in revenue and margins approaching 21 percent. CIE, which is publicly traded on the Mexican stock exchange, operates top venues and regularly promotes major concerts and operates their own ticketing platform in many important music markets including Mexico City (population 20 million), Guadalajara (population 4 million), Monterrey (population 3.8 million) and many others. CIE produces more than 85% of all the live concerts by international talent in Mexico, a country with a population of more than 100 million people. T4F operates top venues in Sao Paolo (population 18.3 million), Buenos Aires (population 12.6 million), Lima (population 7.1 million), Rio de Janeiro (population 6 million), Santiago (population 5 million), and Porto Alegre (population 4.1 million) all of which are emerging as important new markets for international talent.
"This expansion provides us with a world class execution partner and a new revenue source to further monetize our global tours in a region where we currently have no market share," said Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation. "Alejandro and Fernando have built a remarkable live music infrastructure in Latin America which will immediately allow us to expand our global distribution pipe into more than 25 new outlets and give us access to growing music markets with a total population of more than half a billion people."
Alejandro Soberon Kuri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CIE commented: "It is very clear to us that Live Nation’s global platform is attracting the world’s most exciting and successful artists, cementing their position as the leading provider of talent on a global basis. By forming an exclusive alliance with Live Nation, we are ensuring that our distribution channels will be filled with a steady stream of live concerts from the greatest artists in the world."
Fernando Alterio, President of T4F spoke to the alliance: "Access to Live Nation’s unparalleled global touring division will help solidify our position as the market leader in South American live entertainment."
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 CIE:
Created in 1990, Corporacion Interamericana de Entretenimiento, S.A.B. de C.V. (CIE), pioneered the "out of home" entertainment industry in Latin America. Today, CIE is the main producer of live events in Latin America and a leader in the gaming industry in Mexico. In addition, its commercial platform of diverse advertising channels and properties makes CIE the third-largest advertising network in Mexico. CIE is a public company whose shares have been listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange since 1995 under the symbol "CIE."
ABOUT T4F:
Originally established in 1983, the company became Time For Fun in September 2007 with operations in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. It is the 2007 leader in revenue and number of shows promoted in South America. Its businesses include concert promotion, ticketing, stock car racing, venue management, theatrical production and more.
First Call Analyst:
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SOURCE: Live Nation