The American Antitrust Institute has just published an anaysis of the merger. It’s not positive:

The discussion considers two other attributes of the proposed transaction that make it even more problematic.  First, one of the chief concerns raised by the merger is that Live Nation Entertainment would be a vertically integrated enterprise with dominance or substantial power on six market levels.  The new entity would therefore be able to use its strengths in some markets as leverage to gain customers or compliance in others.  Moreover, this vertical integration would effectively frustrate new entry, because as a practical matter it would require firms seeking to compete seriously against Live Nation Entertainment to enter the industry on several levels at once.  The second factor is that the merged entity would likely enjoy market power not just as a seller but also as a buyer.  In essence, the company’s market dominance would benefit it in both ways.

The paper also considers whether the merger, suspect on its surface, might yield efficiencies that warrant not challenging the transaction.  In this regard, the Department of Justice may consider only efficiencies that (a) arise specifically from the merger and would not be attainable in other reasonable way, (b) are not speculative and whose benefits are
verifiable, and (c) outweigh the harm caused in every adversely affected market.  The efficiencies claimed by the parties satisfy none of these requirements.

Emphases added. The whole paper is available here.

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Previously in Hitsville:

A new Ticketmaster Phish screwup
An economist on scalping
Live Nation’s NYC parking fee three-card monte
Ticketmaster’s definition of the word ’scalping’
Bono, noted Live Nation employee, ducks merger questions from DeRo!
The Corgan meltdown—It gets worse
Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and the ’secondary market’
The best article yet on the Ticketmaster/Live Nation debate
Hillary Rosen—She’s baaaack!
Ticketmaster service fees: Where the money goes
Live-blogging the House hearings on the Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger
“Re”-selling tickets that don’t yet exist
Liveblogging the Senate’s Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger hearings
Seal & Van Halen in Azoff’s corner!
Updated! 26 questions that should be asked at the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger hearings tomorrow Ticketmaster shareholders sue to stop merger
How Live Nation does business
Will the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger mean higher concert prices?
Another suit against Ticketmaster
Constantly updated: The Ticketmaster-Live-Nation unholy-matrimony news round-up!
Five arguments against the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger
Irving Azoff kicks it old school
The music industry’s Putin
Bad merger coverage
WWBD (What would Bono do?)
Billboard’s analysis of the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger
Springsteen and Landau bash Ticketmaster and Live Nation!
P.S. on Ticketmaster: A case study, starring Bruce Springsteen
Why the potential Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger is a very bad idea
Is Ticketmaster trying to muddle the fees issue?
The Azoff-Ticketmaster deal: Bad news for concert-goers—and the music industry
Why you so seldom read about obscene Ticketmaster-style ticketing charges