Ticket Battle
Eventim sold shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in January 2000, raising $65 million. The company’s shares declined 0.5 percent to 30.46 euros, at 10:42 a.m. in Frankfurt.
The IPO came as the music industry’s profit center moved to live events from recorded music sales, which are expected to fall more than $7 billion to almost $23 billion worldwide in 2017, while sales from live events, such as theater and sporting events, will increase to $31 billion by the same year, according to New York-based consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
In 2007, the company struck a 10-year contract to provide sales technology to Live Nation Entertainment Inc., the world’s largest concert promoter.
Live Nation terminated the contract three years later, after merging with Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., the world’s biggest ticket seller. Eventim sued Live Nation before the Paris-based International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, a case it lost last week.
The judgment, which could’ve awarded as much as $210 million to Eventim, according to Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Benjamin Mogil, probably won’t hurt the company, said Wimmer.
“The outcome wasn’t a disaster,” said Wimmer of the verdict. “They aren’t dependent on the cash.”