Deadline Hollywood (11/05/20) Goldsmith, Jill

Live Nation expects live events will rebound next summer, in view of the 86% of fans that retained their tickets for rescheduled shows during the pandemic, although concert cancellations led to a dismal third quarter sales plummet of 94%. CEO Michael Rapino said between tickets held for rescheduled shows and new sales "we have already sold 19 million tickets to more than 4,000 concerts and festivals scheduled for 2021, creating a strong baseload of demand that is pacing well ahead of this point last year." As of the end of the second quarter, Live Nation reported total cash and cash-equivalent assets of $3.3 billion, including $1.8 billion of free cash and $966 million of available debt capacity — amounting to $2.7 billion in available liquidity. The company remains the reigning ticket seller, and said it is confident that it possesses "the ability to fund operations until the expected return of concerts at scale in the summer of 2021, preceded by ticket sales earlier in the year."

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