Live Nation Reaches DOJ Settlement in Antitrust Case

0:00Jennifer Rie:So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300 ,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94 % of common questions. Not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business.

0:27Alexis Christoforous:Let's create smarter business. IBM.

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2:01Jennifer Rie:Want to bounce off with Live Nation and our next guest, Jennifer Ree, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Litigation Analyst. Jennifer, thanks so much for coming in studio here. We don't know a lot about this Live Nation settlement, right? Maybe we should just start with what do we know? Right. And it's changing by the minute, by the way. I keep seeing new reports with new details, but it looks like at least one part of it is a divestiture. that would be divesting large amphitheaters that are owned by Live Nation. The Department of Justice alleged that Live Nation owned 60 out of the 100 top amphitheaters in the U.S.

2:34Jennifer Rie:And the control over those amphitheaters, which the artists really need for summer tours, desire for summer tours, was part of the problem. Some of the claims that were left in this litigation. So selling some of them opens them up to other promoters.

2:50Alexis Christoforous:okay i guess one big question people had was ticketmaster the fate of ticketmaster and whether that stays with live nation or whether it's spun out or the company is forced to sell that do we have a firm answer as to what happens to ticketmaster well not really according to the

3:07Jennifer Rie:doj settlement it does not have to be sold but not there are 40 states involved as well they are also plaintiffs and they also have the authority to litigate under federal antitrust laws just as the Department of Justice does. And not all of them have settled, according to the news reports. New York has actually come out and said, this isn't good enough. We're going to continue on. So if they continue on with the litigation, they will continue to seek a divestiture order from the judge for Live Nation to sell Ticketmaster. They see that as the only solution to kind of fix a broken concert ticketing system and live concert industry.

3:41Jennifer Rie:I'll tell you, I think it's a long shot. You know, once you get the settlement with the Department of Justice and you kind of lose the weight of the Department of Justice behind you on these antitrust matters, it is difficult for the states to go forward and win, even if they won a jury determination that Live Nation was guilty of illegal monopolization. I'm not so sure that the judge would be willing to stick his neck out and impose what's considered a really drastic remedy generally to force a company to break itself up. So let's play pretend and say the states are not successful with their trials.

4:13Jennifer Rie:Does this DOJ settlement mean anything at all to you and me when we go out to try to buy tickets? I mean, and I've said this, people who listen to the show regularly know I talk about being a family of five. And man, you're taking a small mortgage. It's just like take the whole family to go see a show. So is that going to get any better under this settlement as it stands? I'll tell you that I'm skeptical. And, you know, what you just said is why this case is so politically popular. And this was a little bit surprising because it really has bipartisan interest. It has bipartisan support, you know, consumer support.

4:45Jennifer Rie:Kid Rock was going to come along and he was going to be a witness for the plaintiffs in this case because Live Nation has been under a Department of Justice consent order since 2010. So in other words, since 2010, the way they behave in the marketplace was supposed to be regulated. They were supposed to behave in a certain way, and they've managed to really get around that for years. In fact, during the first Trump administration, the Department of Justice investigated, determined that Live Nation was violating the terms of that order and extended it and sort of bolstered its terms. And now this case came along with the allegation that no Live Nation continues to violate the terms of that order.

5:23And so my skepticism comes from there are new terms here that they're talking about that,

5:28Jennifer Rie:again, are behavioral. I talked about selling the amps, but there are also behavioral conditions. And if Live Nation's been able to get around behavioral conditions since 2010, I'm not sure what's going to stop them now. What about Ticketmaster's competitors?

5:41Alexis Christoforous:Have they done things better? Have they changed the way that they sell tickets or that they allow people to buy and sell tickets?

5:47Jennifer Rie:What's interesting, you ask, because the CEO and founder of SeatGeek was one of the witnesses I heard last week. And SeatGeek started as a secondary ticket seller. They were just a marketplace to bring together people who wanted to sell tickets they couldn't use and buyers. But they're trying to get into what's called primary ticketing, being the first one to ticket an event and really have struggled. And they say they have struggled because of Live Nation, that they have superior technology, that their platform is better, that what they can offer venues is better, but they haven't been able to get those venues signed up because either they have a long-term exclusive agreement to be ticketed by Ticketmaster or because Live Nation, which is a huge promoter, handles artist tours, said, we'll route our artists around your venue.

6:28Jennifer Rie:We won't bring them to your venue if you use some company other than Ticketmaster.

6:31Alexis Christoforous:Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

7:01Alexis Christoforous:Retirement accounts, yep. High-yield cash, yes again. They even have direct indexing. Public has modern design, powerful tools, and customer support that actually helps. Go to public.com slash market and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash market.

7:31Alexis Christoforous:risk of loss. See complete disclosures at public.com slash disclosures. Deadlines move, plans change, and sometimes opportunities pop up out of nowhere. When you need branded gear fast, 4imprint is ready to deliver. 4imprint offers hundreds of promotional products in their 24-hour category. Everything from custom apparel, bags, and drinkware to writing tools, trade show staples, and high-tech gear. At 4imprint, they're focused on getting the details right, printing your logo with precision, packing your order with care, and shipping it out fast. And it's backed by their 360-degree guarantee. That's 4imprint's promise your order will show up right on time, just the way you planned it.

8:11Alexis Christoforous:That's what it means to be 4imprint certain. So, if you're prepping for a last-minute event or jumping on a big opportunity, you don't have to settle or scramble. With 4imprint, fast, reliable service and peace of mind are built right in. Check out their full 24-hour selection at 4imprint.com. 4imprint. 4certain. So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises.

8:36Jennifer Rie:So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300 ,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94 % of common questions. Not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off. Deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business. IBM.

9:03Alexis Christoforous:You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.

9:18Jennifer Rie:Just a few days ago, Novo Nordisk was suing Hims and Hers because they were selling a cheaper knockoff brand of their best-selling Wagovi blockbuster obesity drug. Well, you know what? Now they're in business once again with Hims and Hers. Here to break it down is Madison Muller, Bloomberg News health reporter. Boy, shares of Hims and Hers up now, I think better than 30%. So Wall Street obviously likes this situation. How are these two companies working together?

9:44Scarlet Fu:Yeah, it's a little bit of a crazy, surprising situation that ends a months long saga between the two companies. They are now pairing up for the second time to allow Novo to sell discounted versions of its weight loss drugs on him's and hers telehealth platform. And people might recall that this actually was the case back in June. The two companies were working together to do something similar, and that sort of fell apart spectacularly when Novo accused Hems of deceptive marketing of these copycat weight loss medications that it was continuing to sell on its platform. And that really sent Hems shares down at the time.

10:21Scarlet Fu:But the two companies since then have traded various barbs. I mean, with Novo suing Hems over selling a copycat version of its blockbuster weight loss pill that recently launched. And so this is definitely a surprise to, I think, a lot of investors out there who had expected this to continue dragging on between the two companies.

10:40Jennifer Rie:So is this what's really driving this strategic partnership, though? Is it e-health, these e-health providers? And if so, sort of connect those dots for us.

10:49Scarlet Fu:Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think on both sides, both companies are under enormous pressure right now. HIMSS mounting regulatory and legal pressure, both with the Novo Nordisk lawsuit that now has been pulled, but also with the FDA saying that it was going to crack down on compounded weight loss drugs. There's a possible DOJ investigation, and they also disclosed during earnings a couple weeks ago that they're under investigation by the SEC. So they have a lot going on themselves and really need a path forward, even though they have other offerings on their platform. Investors really have said that they don't see another similar avenue of growth like weight loss drugs.

11:26Scarlet Fu:Then on the Novo Nordisk side, Novo has really been losing market share to companies like HIMSS that sell these knockoff weight loss drugs, as well as Eli Lilly, which is a massive pharmaceutical company based here in the US. And they have rival weight loss drugs that have become more popular than Novo's. So there's a lot of pressure for both companies on both sides. These e-health platforms, like you said, have been an enormous driver of growth for Lily and for Novo, a lot of patients are seeking out these medications on these online platforms where it's often easier and can be cheaper to get these medications.

11:59Scarlet Fu:And so partnering, both companies have been looking to partner with a lot of these e-health companies from Roe to Weight Watchers to Hims and Hers.

12:08Jennifer Rie:Right. What is Hims and Hers sort of bread and butter,

12:11Scarlet Fu:if you will? Yeah. I mean, for a long time, it was erectile dysfunction and hair loss drugs. And so they really went after this consumer market, consumer drugs that are popular and that maybe patients were embarrassed for whatever reason to go into their doctor and ask for these medications. They wanted a more discreet online sort of service where they can get them. But then when they moved into weight loss drugs, I think two years ago now at this point, that really became what put them on the map for a lot of people. I mean, I still talk to people who weren't really paying attention to what HIMSS was doing until they started selling weight loss drugs.

12:45Scarlet Fu:And that was a massive boon for them over the last couple of years and really a major growth driver. And then when that sort of ended, it became a question mark of sort of what was going to be that next avenue of growth for them.

12:58Jennifer Rie:So Novo has a new CEO, right? Mike, is it Dutestar? Dutestar, yeah. Okay. He was personally involved in these negotiations with HIMS and HERS. What does that sort of tell you about this new CEO? I guess a much more hands-on approach than some others might have.

13:13Scarlet Fu:Yeah, definitely. And the last sort of talks and issues really fell apart under Novo's last CEO. So Mike was kind of looking to bring things back and really, from what we understand, like shepherded this renewed partnership between the two companies. He was very involved, him and the him CEO, Andrew Dudum, spoke directly, worked directly on reigniting this partnership between the two companies. You know, Mike has taken a more aggressive approach than Novo has historically. Novo CEOs have historically because they've really lost out in the U.S. market that they have helped create. And that is the most lucrative weight loss drug market.

13:51Scarlet Fu:And he's looking for aggressive actions to get them back in the game. everything from M &A to sort of the approach that they're taking with these compounding pharmacies and with these e-health companies. And one of the things he has told us that when he took this job several months ago, one of the feedbacks he got from a lot of investors and analysts was that Nova wasn't making the most of this, you know, consumer health e-health market, like in the same way that Lilly was. And that was somewhere that where they could really improve things. So he said that that's been a major push for them, even with sort of refreshing their own consumer health websites and the way that everything looks, just making it a better experience for consumers' patients.

14:31Scarlet Fu:And so that sort of fits in with this same strategy with HIMSS.

14:36Alexis Christoforous:Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. Support for the show comes from Public. Lately, it feels like there are two types of investing platforms. Some are traditional brokerages that haven't changed much in decades, and others feel less like investing and more like a game. Public is positioned differently. It's an investing platform for people who are serious about building their wealth. On Public, you can build a portfolio of stocks, options, bonds, crypto without all the bugs or the confetti. Retirement accounts, yep. High yield cash, yes again. They even have direct indexing.

15:11Alexis Christoforous:Public has modern design, powerful tools, and customer support that actually helps. Go to public.com slash market and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash market. Add paid for by Public Holdings. Brokered services by Public Investing, member FINRA SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, SEC Registered Advisor. Crypto services by ZeroHash. All investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures at public.com slash disclosures. deadlines move plans change and sometimes opportunities pop up out of nowhere when you need branded gear fast for imprint is ready to deliver for imprint offers hundreds of promotional products in their 24-hour category everything from custom apparel bags and drink wear to writing tools trade show staples and high-tech gear at for imprint they're focused on getting the details right printing your logo with precision packing your order with care and shipping it out fast.

16:07Alexis Christoforous:And it's backed by their 360-degree guarantee. That's 4imprint's promise your order will show up right on time, just the way you planned it. That's what it means to be 4imprint certain. So, if you're prepping for a last-minute event or jumping on a big opportunity, you don't have to settle or scramble. With 4imprint, fast, reliable service and peace of mind are built right in. Check out their full 24-hour selection at 4imprint.com. for imprint, for certain. So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises.

16:40Jennifer Rie:So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300 ,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94 % of common questions. Not noise, proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business. IBM.

17:08Alexis Christoforous:You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube. We want to talk a little bit about some individual sectors. And here I'm really talking about consumer and high-end consumer, luxury consumer. Okay. they are obviously impacted by how people feel when it comes to the conflict in the Middle East and how comfortable people feel about spending in this current environment. There's a lot of uncertainty out there.