live Nation fired back, arguing that consumers would benefit because the combined entity
would make it easier for ticket buyers to pick the
seats they wanted online, thereby bypassing the
“sticker shock” caused when ticket-handling
fees are tacked on to the admission price. In testimony before a senate Judiciary subcommittee,
Azoff disputed allegations of antitrust violations.
In this era of technological innovation, he argued
that Ticketmaster confronted greater competition
from new ticketing software developed by the
venues themselves to sidestep Ticketmaster.
live Nation had just tapped technology
to create its own ticketing business. “We
had a real need to know who our customer
was, and Ticketmaster, as our data provider,
didn’t share that information,” Willard
notes. “That’s why in 2008 we decided to
start our own ticketing company, which we
she pruned the portfolio,
selling off the non-core
motor sports business and
theater division, and went
all the way through the
ticketmaster merger, right
in the thick of the recession.
—GoLDMAn sAChs’ ryAn
successfully launched the following year.
That opened the door to useful conversa-
tions with Ticketmaster.”
Whether the merger would pass muster
was a roll of the dice, with legal observers
giving it a 50-50 chance of prevailing. Wil-
lard says the company didn’t know until two
weeks before the acquisition officially closed
that it was a fait accompli. “There was a lot
of frustration and pain, but once we had the
green light, we closed the transaction in five
days,” she says.
The fast close was a testament to Willard’s
copious due diligence in preparation. each com-
pany’s functional heads and senior leaders were
aligned with their counterparts to work through
the details of what the combined company
might look like. When the deal was given the
thumbs up, all the documentation was in place
and the integration moved forward without a
hitch. “Planning aforethought made a huge dif-
ference,” Willard says, noting that within nine
months Ticketmaster was running on live Na-
tion’s oracle eRP system.
luck has nothing to do with it, says Colin
Ryan, managing director in Goldman sachs’
san Francisco-based technology, media and
telecom practice. Ryan assisted Willard with
the Ticketmaster acquisition, the recent divestitures and refinancing, and even the spin-off
back in 2005 that gave birth to live Nation.
obviously, Willard loves what she does—why
else take on so much work? “I was sitting back
recently at the Rose Bowl with 96,000 other
people watching u2 perform,” she says. “I was
there early and was just amazed at how all
these people came into the venue so smoothly,
sat down and then shared a communal experience. I had such an appreciation for all the
people I work with every day. I thought, ‘my
company does this.’”
