• Los Angeles Times, Thursday, February 5, 2009 11 AM

The Boss, among others, is not a fan of a rumored merger-in-the-making between the two biggest companies in live concerts, Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation. The combination would give too much power to one company, Bruce Springsteen says, "returning us to a near-monopoly situation in music ticketing," according to a statement on his Web site.

Legal experts said there are major hurdles to overcome, particularly regarding antitrust issues, David Colker, Tiffany Hsu and Randy Lewis report. Word of the talks comes about a month after Live Nation dropped Ticketmaster as its ticketing vendor and started selling tickets to its own events. Neither Ticketmaster nor Live Nation has commented.

Concert tours are an increasingly important revenue source for artists as CD sales decline. Live Nation recently expanded its scope from being a concert promoter to also managing profit centers such as merchandising, licensing and fan clubs.

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