(AllHipHop News) Shareholders of the entertainment company Live Nation had some things to cheer and jeer this week, after the corporation’s financial statements were released Tuesday afternoon.
According to Billboard, the multimedia conglomerate saw its revenue rise 8% last year. That’s equates to a $5.8 billion haul, but the company’s net lost doubled from $83 million in 2011 to $163 million in 2012.
Most of those losses are the result of former chairman Irving Azoff and 26 other employees’ departures from Live Nation last December.
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc is the world’s biggest concert promoter and ticket seller. The company was created when Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010.
The merger was highly contested by artists, music fans, members of Congress, and major tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and eBay who believed the new mega-company consisting of artist management, music recording, ticket sales, and promotion would monopolize the music industry and drive up ticket prices.
Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division’s revenue grew 4% to $1.37 billion with the value of tickets sold through Ticketmaster increasing 8.4%. The total number of tickets sold rose 4.5% to 147.7 million in 2012.
The Artist Nation music unit (which is home to Madonna, U2, and Jay-Z and his Roc Nation label) saw an operating lose in 2012. Again, $5.5 million of those loses were attributed to the departure of Azoff. Another $62.7 million was a one-time charge to bring down the value of Artist Nation as compared to its projected value at the time of the merger.
According to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino 2013 is already off to a great start for the company. Over 9 million tickets for shows this year have already been sold which is a 58% increase from last year. Ticketmaster is opening offices in Asia and Latin America and will be adding music festivals to its lineup.
“During 2012, the company increased revenue by 8 percent and grew all our business segments while continuing to invest in our long-term ticketing platform,” said Rapino in a statement. “Looking forward to 2013, I am confident that we will continue the successful growth of the core business.”
