Live Nation (LYV)

Live Nation and Ticketmaster are for all intent and purposes riding together now, for the good or the bad of both. Although on my last review of this matter their merger is NOT guaranteed as they have a large amount of overlap in an area that regulators are adament has sufficient competition to protect those who should be able to protect theirselves. Both companies, still, however spent $12 Million in pre-merger activities and are set to vote January 8th, so the deal looks probably.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster both topped expectations, but revenue for Live Nation was down MORE THAN 50% from the same quarter last year. Losing $60 Million on revenu of $3.1B in the last 9 months does show some potential if Live nation can get it's act together, but running up the share price of a company with minimal growth in an economic decline seems excessive to me. 1/2 of same quarer sales for LYV PLUS 1/2 of Same quarter sells for Ticketmaster barely makes ONE, and certainly NOT TWO. Live Nation still have a NET Negative Tangible Assets of $131 Million. TKTM still has a negative net tangible of $600M. Negative plus Negative is still a negative.
IF someone has money to burn and wants to overpay for their entertainment then they should be allowed to do so. Here, however is part of the rationale for my red thumb. Many of those partaking of the higher end concert world of Live Nations venues are those most affected by the economic recession. (i.e. Younger workers or parental freeloaders).

pending merger approvals. Going vertical in a business holding up well.