Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment is an American entertainment company, formed from the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It owns, leases, operates, has booking rights for and/or equity interest in a large number of U.S. entertainment venues. The leadership consists of John C. Malone, chairman of Liberty Media as chairman and Michael Rapino (previously chief executive officer of Live Nation) as president and CEO of the company.

The merger that gave rise to the company was not without opposition. The proposed merger initially received regulatory approval in Norway and Turkey. The United States Justice Department approved the merger on January 25, 2010, with some conditions to which both parties agreed. However, in October 2009, the United Kingdom's Competition Commission provisionally ruled against the merger. On December 22, 2009, the Competition Commission reversed its decision and cleared the proposed merger.

Clearance and divestment of assets to merge

Separate regulatory reviews of the proposal were continuing in the United States and Canada. On January 25, 2010, the United States and Canadian governments cleared the way for Live Nation and TicketMaster to merge. Irving Azoff is chairman and founder of Azoff Music Management Group, Inc. In late 2008, he became chairman and CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment. He is now Executive Chairman of Live Nation Entertainment

Nation

Nation (from Latin: natio, "people, tribe, kin, genus, class, flock") is a social concept with no uncontroversial definition, but that is most commonly used to designate larger groups or collectives of people with common characteristics attributed to them—including language, traditions, customs (mores), habits (habitus), and ethnicity. A nation, by comparison, is more impersonal, abstract, and overtly political than an ethnic group. It is a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its autonomy, unity, and particular interests.

According to Joseph Stalin: "a nation is not a racial or tribal, but a historically constituted community of people;" "a nation is not a casual or ephemeral conglomeration, but a stable community of people"; "a nation is formed only as a result of lengthy and systematic intercourse, as a result of people living together generation after generation"; and, in its entirety: "a nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture."