The concert business giant announced that it settled with Songkick for $110 million and an additional undisclosed sum to acquire the company\u2019s technology assets and patents.<\/b>
\nTwo years ago, Songkick, a ticketing start-up that operated out of a loft in Brooklyn, filed an antitrust suit against Live Nation Entertainment, the colossus of the concert business.
The David-and-Goliath suit included accusations of abuse of market power by Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary.
But on Friday, less than two weeks before the start of a trial, Live Nation announced that it had settled the suit for $110 million and an additional undisclosed sum to acquire some of Songkick\u2019s remaining technology assets and patents.
\u201cWe are pleased that we were able to resolve this dispute and avoid protracted and costly legal proceedings, while also acquiring valuable assets,\u201d Joe Berchtold, the president of Live Nation, said in a joint statement.
Matt Jones, the chief executive of Songkick\u2019s parent company, Complete Entertainment Resources Group, thanked employees and artists \u201cwho contributed so much to our many successes over the last decade.\u201d
Last summer, Songkick sold one of its main businesses, a concert-recommendation app, to the Warner Music Group \u2014 owned by one of Songkick\u2019s major investors, Access Industries \u2014 and later shut down its remaining operations.
Songkick\u2019s case hinged on the rights to sell a ticket. The company specialized in so-called artist presales, or selling batches of advance tickets \u2014 often around 8 percent of the inventory for a show \u2014 to fans. Presales serve, in part, as a way to thwart scalpers.
Songkick contended that Live Nation was interfering in its business by blocking its access to presale tickets and by demanding fees on the sale of tickets that Songkick handled. But Live Nation, which countersued, argued that its contracts with venues gave it the right to determine how those tickets should be sold. Songkick\u2019s suit also accused Live Nation of threatening artists not to do business with Songkick.
The case was also punctuated by accusations of corporate espionage by Ticketmaster, and had voluminous court filings showing sometimes embarrassing internal communications among top Live Nation executives.
Many in the music industry were skeptical about Songkick\u2019s case, and the company lost a number of pretrial motions. But until recently the company was insistent on pursuing its case.<\/p>\n

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