Ticketmaster acquires Songkick after settling lawsuit for $110m

Ticketing rivals Ticketmaster and Songkick have settled their two year old lawsuit – with the Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster paying $110 million and acquiring Songkick as part of the deal.

The lawsuit was set to go to Federal court in Los Angeles this month.

Songkick was founded in 2008 as a concert discovery and artist ticketing platform.

The discovery portion was sold last year to Warner Music Group for $5 million.

Songkick fired the first salvo in the Ticketmaster battle in late 2015, with allegations of anti-competitive behaviour and antitrust violation, and claims that Ticketmaster felt that Songkick threatened its market share in North America, especially in the presale and fan club ticketing market.

Then came allegations that a one-time Songkick employee working at Ticketmaster had secretly got into Songkick’s computer systems to access data on its sales and clients.

Ticketmaster responded with counter-claims of anti-competitive behaviour.

It has transpired in recent weeks that in the middle of this bitter exchange of words, Songkick had approached Live Nation about buying their company – and been turned down an hour later.

Songkick had also pitched itself to private equity firm Providence, Amazon, Deezer and StubHub,

The two companies issued a joint statement over the weekend.

"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.

“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 Songkick CEO Matt Jones.

The Songkick acquisition gives Ticketmaster its ticketing commerce platform, anti-scalping algorithm, API applications and patent portfolio.