There has been a surprise ending to the long-running legal battle between Live Nation and the owners of ticketing firm Songkick: a $110m settlement that sees Live Nation acquiring some of the company’s remaining technology assets and patents. This, despite Songkick suffering several setbacks as it pursued litigation against the live-entertainment giant.
“We are pleased that we were able to resolve this dispute and avoid protracted and costly legal proceedings, while also acquiring valuable assets,” said Live Nation president Joe Berchtold in a statement.
“We are glad to have resolved this litigation and thank all the employees, artists and industry partners who contributed so much to our many successes over the last decade,” added Matt Jones of Complete Entertainment Resources Group.
Live Nation is acquiring Songkick’s ticketing commerce platform, anti-scalping algorithm, API applications and patent portfolio – its concert-discovery app was sold to Warner Music Group last year, you may remember, so that’s not part of the settlement.
The agreement came less than two weeks before the case, in which Songkick accused Live Nation of unfairly interfering with its nascent presale-tickets business, was due to go to trial.
The positive outcome for Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary is the acquisition of some technology that could potentially prove useful for its Verified Fan initiative.
It comes at a bigger cost than many people in the music industry expected, having watched Songkick shut down its business and receive setbacks during the process leading up to the trial.
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