Another interesting development in the often controversial world of secondary ticketing. Primary ticket seller Ticketmaster has bought TicketsNow, a leading ticket resale marketplace in the US, and the company behind online ticket sale software used by many secondary sellers.
Ticketmaster will acquire the firm in a $265 million deal. TicketsNow will continue to operate pretty autonomously after the deal, with much of its current management team expected to stay in place. The acquisition will require regulatory approval but, according to Billboard, Ticketmaster say they hope to have everthing completed by the end of March.
The deal comes at the start of what is expected to be an interesting year in the mad world of event ticketing - in which Live Nation's previously reported move into the domain is expected to have a significant impact on the market, plus the debate over the rights and wrongs of the resale of tickets by agencies or individual touts is sure to become even more heated.