Anyone interested in a Brixton Academy? Just two previous careful owners, sale forced by world domination concerns? Well, you might be in luck. The Competition Commission has formally ruled that if live entertainment conglom Live Nation want to buy a majority stake in the gig venue owning Academy Group (which, as previously reported, they do) then they must first agree to sell two of the merged enterprise's London venues.
Live Nation or, rather, their joint venture with Gaiety Investments, Hamsard, has been told that for the proposed merger to go ahead they must commit to sell either the Brixton Academy (currently owned by the Academy Group) or the Hammersmith Apollo (currently owned by Live Nation), and either the Shepherds Bush Empire (currently owned by the Academy Group) or The Forum (currently owned by Mean Fiddler, which is in turn owned by Hamsard). Competition officials say that if Live Nation was allowed a controlling interest in all four of those venues then there would be a "substantial lessening of competition in relation to certain live music venues in London" which, they fear, might result "in rentals at the venues concerned being higher than would otherwise be the case".
The Competition Commission's ruling is not a surprise because, as previously reported, a provisional announcement in November had indicated a venue sale would be required to achieve regulator approval, though, officially at least, Live Nation had remained hopeful that the monopoly authorities could ultimately be talked round, despite opposition to their takeover plans from a number of influential concert promoters, who also feared the deal would lead to increased rental prices, and possibly unfairly favour Live Nation's own concert promotion division.
In a statement yesterday, the Competition Commission said: "Hamsard will not be permitted to acquire a controlling interest in Academy until there is a binding sale / purchase commitment for the venues in question. The sale will need to be approved by the CC so that it is made to a suitable purchaser(s) and is likely to include venue management and booking teams, contracts with customers and suppliers as well as customer information and contact lists, in order to help ensure the viability of the venues for any purchaser(s)".