…that the DOJ approved the merger of everyone’s two favorite companies in the touring business - TicketMaster and LiveNation? They found no reason to have anti-trust concerns with a merger between a monopolistic ticket service and a monopolistic concert promoter/venue owner. But wait! There’s more!
One person who may have had some input into this decision was FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. Fun fact about Mr. Genachowski - one of his previous gigs before he came to Washington was on the board of directors at - wait for it - TicketMaster! I’m sure there was no conflict of interest if he did in fact have a say in this decision.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of Obama’s hard-ass chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Fun fact about Mr. Emanuel - his brother, Ari, is a hard-ass Hollywood talent agent. He was supposedly the inspiration behind the character Ari on the HBO show Entourage. I’m sure that his being on the board of directors at LiveNation played no part in swaying the DOJ’s decision to let this absurdly anti-competitive, big-business friendly decision to go through.
I might as well have voted for Palin…
