Live Nation, Ticketmaster deal gathers critics

By Diane Bartz and Yinka Adegoke

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Top concert promoter Live Nation's (LYV.N) proposed purchase of No. 1 U.S. ticket vendor Ticketmaster Entertainment TKTM.O is bad for fans and musicians, say some lawmakers and rivals.

The merger, announced Tuesday and worth about $316 million in stock at Wednesday's closing prices, is getting extra attention due to complaints last week over Ticketmaster's handling of ticket sales for a Bruce Springsteen tour.

The tickets were sold within minutes, but disappointed fans turned into angry consumers when Ticketmaster pointed them to one of its subsidiaries, reseller TicketsNow, where tickets were for sale at much more than the face value.

Despite an apology from Ticketmaster, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, a member of the Judiciary Committee from New York, and Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell from New Jersey, said they found the incident troubling and have asked for a federal investigation of the relationship with TicketsNow.

"It sounds awfully strange when you call up Ticketmaster at 10:02 and you're told all the tickets are sold out but TicketsNow has tickets. And TicketsNow of course sells them at a much higher price. And TicketsNow is owned by Ticketmaster," said Schumer.

Pascrell agreed, saying his office received 1,200 telephone calls complaining about the Springsteen ticket sale snafu. "I think what we want to know is how many tickets that Ticketmaster gave to TicketsNow, and when they did that?"

Since the Springsteen incident surfaced, blogs have been full of similar complaints from people who tried to buy tickets for such shows as Radiohead, Leonard Cohen and Phish.

Live Nation is the world's dominant promoter -- its acts sold 39.3 million tickets last year compared to 13.8 million for No. 2 promoter AEG Live, according to trade publication Pollstar. Live Nation has only recently begun selling tickets.