Two major concert operators in the United States on Tuesday announced that they have finalized a merger agreement, creating an equal partnership that is expected to dominate the concert business.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation, both based in Los Angeles, are combined into a new company named Live Nation Entertainment, which will handle concert promotion, ticketing and, in some cases, artist management, the companies said.

"No different from any other industry, the challenges are all around every aspect of live entertainment," said Barry Diller, Ticketmaster's chairman, referring to the current economic recession.

"Being able to put Live Nation and Ticketmaster into an equal partnership will allow the companies to get through this difficult period and be able to expand live entertainment options to audiences throughout the world," he said.

The two companies currently boast 6 billion dollars collectively in annual sales.

Ticketmaster, which puts on some 16,000 concerts per year in 57 countries, has an artist management firm, which represents the Eagles, Miley Cyrus and other big names, and has exclusive deals with acts such as U2 and Madonna.

For a decade, the two companies had a cooperative relationship in which Ticketmaster sold tickets to Live Nation events, but Live Nation started its own ticketing unit in January.

Once merged, the company hopes to realize about 40 million dollars in annual savings, company officials said.

The deal is subject to an anti-trust review, and industry analysts estimate that the merged company would control about 80 percent of the concert business in the United States.

(CRI February 11, 2009)