OK, so he didn’t actually say “Hurrah for Trump!”, but Live Nation has admitted it is hopeful that once Donald Trump is US President again a “more traditional antitrust approach” will be pursued by the country’s Department Of Justice. Which probably means that DoJ officials will be less keen - and less likely - to break up Live Nation and its Ticketmaster business.
On Trump’s watch, competition regulators within the DoJ will probably want to “minimise government intervention in the marketplace” when addressing any antitrust issues they identify, says Live Nation CFO Joe Berchtold. Any “request to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster”, he adds, qualifies as the kind of “highly interventionist approach” the revamped DoJ will probably reject.
The sound of champagne corks popping as the election results came in at Live Nation HQ must have been deafening. Fortunately, no-one lost an eye - at least as far as we’re aware. Either way, it does seem likely that an ‘adjustment’ to the DoJ’s stance towards Live Nation may be one of the ways in which Trump’s win in last week's US election will impact on the music industry.
The massive antitrust lawsuit filed against Live Nation by the DoJ earlier this year - accusing the company of anticompetitive conduct and seeking to reverse the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster - is obviously of significant interest to the live giant’s shareholders.
That significant interest was made particularly clear with a sharp uptick in the company’s shareprice after Trump was confirmed as the next US president, shooting up from just over $117 a share the day before the election to an all-time high of $130.76 earlier today.
Senior Live Nation execs have been adamant throughout that there is no anticompetitive conduct and that the company would, therefore, win a court battle with the DoJ. Which may or may not be true, but Trump’s victory has definitely increased confidence at Live Nation HQ that a dramatic conclusion to that litigation, such as a forced sell off of Ticketmaster, is now unlikely.
Had Kamala Harris won the presidency, there would have been a degree of continuity at the DoJ, which has generally taken a tougher stance on competition law issues under current President Joe Biden.
Berchtold discussed what an incoming Trump presidency likely means for his company’s antitrust challenges in an investor call yesterday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he said, “We are hopeful that we’ll see a return to the more traditional antitrust approach”.
That’s an approach where government agencies “have generally tried to find ways to solve problems they see with targeted remedies that minimise government intervention in the marketplace”.
Although not getting into specifics, Berchtold said he felt that at least some aspects of the DoJ antitrust litigation against Live Nation reflect much more of an “interventionist philosophy” than you would expect under a Republican administration. The remedy proposed by the DoJ of splitting up Live Nation and Ticketmaster in particular “would be an example of that highly interventionist approach”.
Asked if the change of regime at the DoJ might actually result in Live Nation going back into acquisition mode and becoming even more dominant in the live entertainment marketplace, Berchtold told investors that the company doesn’t “have any sizable M&A targets”.
While a Trump presidency might be good news for the lawyers at Live Nation, presumably it also means more artists can expect to have their music used at Trump events and in Trump videos without their permission being sought, prompting angry tweets and stern legal letters.
Trump annoying artists by using their music in his political campaigns has been a regular occurrence ever since he first entered the political forum, and now we have at least another four years of that happening. Or possibly a lot longer, depending on who you believe.
Although generally speaking this has resulted more in flurries of angry tweets from artists than stern legal letters, there has been some litigation in more recent years.
That included from The White Stripes, who sued Trump in September over a social media video posted in August which included ‘Seven Nation Army’ without permission. That, said the duo’s lawsuit, was a “flagrant misappropriation of the musical composition and recording”.
However, on Sunday - just days after Trump’s election win - The White Stipes voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit. They didn’t give any information as to why, so we don’t know if their decision to abandon the litigation was influenced by Trump’s election victory.
Though Trump returning to the White House wouldn’t have really impacted on the duo’s legal claim. The dismissal is “without prejudice”, which means they can sue again if they want to - so watch this space…