Last year, Live Nation Entertainment lost $163.2 million, according to just-released financial details. Costly missteps involving Irving Azoff and Artist Nation were to blame, all part of a broader story that now looks scary and horrifying.
I. Annual Losses.
2012: —$163.2 million
2011: —$83.0 million
2010: —$228.4 million
2009: —$60.2 million
2008: —$239.4 million
$774.2 million
II. Debt.
III. Stock Performance.
IV. Executive Compensation (in 2011, the latest disclosures).
Michael Rapino, Pres/CEO $11.9 million
Irving Azoff, Exec. Chairman$34.6 million
Nathan Hubbard, CEO (Ticketmaster) $4.1 million
Alan Ridgeway, Pres. Int’l/Emerging Mkts.$2.2 million
Michael Rowles, General Counsel$1.5 million
Kathy Willard, CFO$2.0 million
“Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino Just Purchased This $14.7 Million Mansion…“
(more compensation details here)
And the “reinvention” of the music biz is complete. Money losing exeperience based business models prove lame.
Makes you wonder how big those salaries would be if they made a profit!
I’m definitely not a LN apologist, but wouldn’t a lot of those losses be from advances given against the future gate & revenue of mega artists, and the purchase of companies?
If that’s the case, the details of those transactions would be needed to put the P & L’s into context.
As it stands now it just looks like a wholesale horror show, but I doubt it’s that bad… or is it?
Maybe.
Hiring of Irving Azoff was the bold and daring move that also cost $10s of millions in losses.
Big Champagne was the bold and daring acquisition that also cost $10s of milions (just to acquire) and is that paying off.
Artist Nation was bold and daring also ($10s of million in write-downs on the bad vision)
Good ideas? Question for debates. Either way Wall Street doesn’t reward the capital intensive expansion you talk about.
>Wall Street doesn’t reward the capital intensive expansion
You are correct, but there has been a lot of talk about LN going private again. John Malone’s Liberty has been quietly buying LN stock. And Azoff is on their board of directors now.
They have run it like a bad hedge fund though Irving and Co made sure they reaped the profits.
Nope. LET THEM FAIL. They are a monopoly of sorts. There are way too few companies doing what they do.
The next company that does any of this well is going to have to start booking regionally- not nationally- and start dealing with clubs and the local music scenes around the country.
The national picture is GONE. 125,000 albums come out a year, where are these bands at venues?
History folks. Clear Chanel loaded LN with debt on the split and LN has never been able to get out from under it. Read “Ticketmaster” / love em or hate em the facts go back to Bob Sillerman and billions in debt service expense.
But the debt has exploded since then and so have the losses.
The old school business model is dead and has been. These numbers seem deluded something is wrong with this whole picture it’s as if there running it like a hedge fund or Peter paying Paul.
Great PR though you would be believe from the hype that they have reconstructed the business,who will they sell it to next? God bless the person who has to count Irvings money.
Gee I wonder what Bob Lefsetz thinks about this?
Bob Lefsetz is a tool.
Is There a comment to be left about this travesty?
Live Nation’s debt skyrocketed in 2010 due to their acquisition of TicketMaster, which led them to take on TicketMaster’s debt. Since then, they’ve kept their debt relatively stable.
As for losses, Live Nation has been spending a lot of money in acquisitions, however, some of those losses can be attributed to the incredibly high booking fees some artists charge. To begin Live Nation Artists with Madonna, they signed her for $120 million. As record sales decline, artists are turning to live shows to ensure revenue.
Looting like this doesn’t last forever boys and shareholders will demand a shake-up in my experience. Then you got the banks which will hog-tie the business especially if this here economy goes where I think it’s going. Then you got the next gig to think about remember every party ends you have a rep to think about. My advice to Live Nation execs would be to cut the jumbo size salaries and 1999 decisions by about 75%. Steve Jobs paid himself $1 remember that.
You couldn’t lose money faster if you put in a pile and set fire to it.
Live Nation, it looks like you could use a hug.
775 millions de pertes cumulées pour Live Nation entre 2008 et 2012 ! Chapeau bas
Wys net weereens dat die huidige model nie werk nie.
Those 360 deals aren’t really working out.
this is crazy and definitely scary for a lot of folks, but do we really want to save livenation and ticketmaster?
Fuck no. Let them burn.
there is too much debt and negative numbers for them to ever recover-a total money grab
Michael Rapino talking to investors today:
“So we’re proud, in 2012, we deliver what we said we’re going to deliver. Since we merged these companies, we’ve had to get the economy right and our business model right. We’re past that now.
We had a good 2011, which was kind of the first year to prove to the market that the 2010 year was the exception to the rule. So delivering a second strong year of growth was important to get the consistency in the story and in our business.”
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1231711-live-nation-entertainment-s-ceo-presents-at-morgan-stanley-technology-media-telecom-conference-transcript?part=single
And its MY problem you have a bunch of overpaid executives who drain the coffers of your doesn’t get it company.
You drown in your own corporate greed, c’est la vie
Not that I’m a huge fan of LiveNation but this is crazy…
Will be interesting how the acquisition of HARD will affect these numbers after their festival season. Does EDM matter in the bigger picture?
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/live-nation-acquires-electronic-music-promoter/