Pollstar (05/24/24) Lind, J.R.

Live Nation was taken aback when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the attorneys general of 30 states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit last week seeking the break-up of the live giant and Ticketmaster. Live Nation President and CFO Joe Berchtold had told a J.P. Morgan investors’ conference just two days prior that antitrust division attorneys were keeping an "open mind" about finding "common ground" as the DOJ’s almost two-and-a-half-year probe approached its conclusion. While Berchtold has long been the point man for Live Nation on regulatory matters, the "man in the arena" for the antitrust suit will be Dan Wall, Live Nation's Executive Vice President, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs. Wall was regarded by many as America's top antitrust attorney in his almost quarter-century at Latham. He has already unfavorably contrasted the Biden administration’s position on antitrust matters with the Obama White House's, which, he reminds, approved the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger in the first place. In a recent response statement, he wrote: "We are another casualty of this administration’s decision to turn over antitrust enforcement to a populist urge that simply rejects how antitrust law works. Some call this 'Anti-Monopoly,' but in reality it is just anti-business."

Read the full story from Pollstar.