live nation ticketmaster

Slumping concert attendance and ticket sales pushed Live Nation Entertainment, a concert promoter that also owns Ticketmaster, into a fourth-quarter loss from a slight profit a year ago. The quarterly loss also exceeds the company's combined losses from the first nine months of 2010.

Fredric Rosen, who led Ticketmaster for 15 years, is poised to go head-to-head against his old company as CEO of Outbox Enterprises, a company that flips Ticketmaster's centralized middleman model of ticket sales on its head.

After approving the merger of concert-promotion behemoth Live Nation and ticketing/artist-management titan Ticketmaster, the Justice Department ordered the partnership to divest a few assets. But will the conditions placate critics?

Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment reportedly received approval to merge, paving the way for a titanic entertainment company handling ticketing, artist management and live music, with exclusive booking deals with over 125 venues.