As Live Nation contends with the Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to break up the company, CFO Joe Berchtold expressed optimism about the suit and the future of the business.
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“I expect we’re going to prevail,” Berchtold said at a Bank of America conference Wednesday. “I don’t expect we’re going to have major changes to how we operate through the process. We have to go through the DOJ, but you know, I can’t ultimately control some of the politics, so we’ll just continue to build each of the businesses to best we can.”
“We’re going through motions back and forth with the DOJ,” he added. “I think next year is a period of discovery and depositions, and then the trial would begin in early ‘26 if nothing between now and then happens that would let us come to an agreed resolution.”
The lawsuit, filed in May by the DOJ and now 39 states and the District of Columbia, alleges that Live Nation has used its position as the nation’s largest concert promoter, ticket seller, through its acquisition of Ticketmaster, and venue owner to undermine competition. The lawsuit seeks the break up of Ticketmaster from Live Nation, among other remedies.
Asked how important Ticketmaster is to the Live Nation business model, Berchtold called it a “nice complement,” but claimed the company runs the two businesses “very separately.”
“I think it’s a nice complement. We believe that gives us the ability to earn more money on the risk that we take in putting on the concert, which we think is reasonable,” he said.
Despite the ongoing lawsuit, Bank of America initiated coverage on Live Nation Entertainment Wednesday with a buy rating and a 12-month price objective of $125, citing the shift in consumer behavior toward spending on experiences, continued demand for live events and artists and rising sponsorship, among other factors. The note added that the possible break-up of the company is already included in the stock price, which is trading around $95.
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“In our view, a potential break-up of the company is largely priced in. We believe that standalone Ticketmaster would trade at ~12.5x AOI while a standalone Live Nation would command ~14x. Though growth would potentially be slightly impeded, we believe it would still be solid for both entities, if separated, given robust fundamentals and numerous tailwinds,” the note reads.
During the conference Wednesday, Berchtold added that the company has not seen any signs of fans cutting back on buying tickets and has seen a continued supply of artists who want to tour, with expansion on a global basis.
However, fans were recently grumbling about the troublesome experience of buying tickets for the Oasis tour reunion. Fans infamously had issues buying tickets to the Taylor Swift: Eras Tour in November 2023, which led to a Senate hearing and further scrutiny.
Berchtold did not reference Oasis specifically, but said the company needs to create a “better experience” for consumers, in part by being more transparent with showing prices up front and pursuing greater enforcement on bots.
“We’re very strong supporters of giving artists more control over how their tickets are distributed and ultimately resold,” Berchtold said. “But really underlying all that is better communication, better transparency. How do we let the fan know what to expect, what’s going on?. You know, I’d love to make the front row a mile wide and have it cost $39. It’s not reality. So I get that at times, Ticketmaster will inherently bear the criticism when 10 million people want to buy a million tickets, and so 90% of the people are going to be inherently unhappy. That is the nature of the industry that we’re in. But we can absolutely do a better job around some of the pieces to set up the expectations in terms of what fans should be seeing.”
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