Live Nation, a.k.a. “the original Buy-it-Now people,” have already done a rather fine job of making Satan himself look more like Willy Loman through their recent ultra-savvy purchases of the, umm, entire careers of Madonna, Jay-Z, Nickelback, and Shakira. Now, their most recent acquisition, the illimitable U2, has just discovered (Merry Christmas, fellas!) that the 1.56 million shares of Live Nation that they are set to receive as part of their 12-year touring and merchandising contract with the concert promotions giant will amount to roughly... $19 million! The deal’s value was revealed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made last week. I’m not sure how many Arizona state joshua trees you could adopt and save with that kind of scratch (that is what U2’s thing is, right?), but I’m sure it’s a whole damn lot.
Unlike many of Live Nation’s other manifested destinies, the U2 deal, which was signed back in March, is not an all-encompasing 360-deal and only includes the band’s tours, merchandising, and official website. In other words, Bono and the boys will continue to release music through Universal Music and collect publishing through their blandly named U2 Ltd. company. Unfortunately, both parties will have to wait to see where the stock market roller coaster decides to crash-land before learning the actual value of their deal, but if history is any guide here, everyone involved will probably be rich enough to buy that roller coaster, fix it up, and sell more tickets.
Just to give you an idea, U2’s Vertigo tour in 2005-2007 made over $400 million in revenues and was the second highest grossing tour... of all time, so touring on a new album alone (which they plan to release in early ’09, by the way) should generate more than a billion dollars in grosses over the course of the contract. Can you say “new sunglasses”?
