Ben Cesario

to be separated from Ticketmaster.

They did offer some concessions in their settlement.

They said that they were going to loosen up the rules that they had about ticketing to allow other ticketers to work in some of their venues, and also that they would make it easier for artists who were not working with them to put on shows in their venues.

And there was also a pool of money

of about $280 million that they were going to offer to any of the states that signed on.

Now, this is a company that has revenues of about $25 billion.

So $280 million, I think that caught people's eye right off the bat as, gee, that seems like a fairly low amount of money, especially when the government at that point in the case was kind of holding a lot of leverage.

For Live Nation, it potentially meant the end of the case, that they were able to avoid getting broken up and that the trial might now be over.

But that is not what ended up happening.

Well, after the settlement is announced, the state attorneys generals, these 40 states, most of them object to the settlement and they feel that it's totally unsatisfactory.

And they decide to push forward.

Ultimately, only six out of the 40 states take that settlement deal.

And since it was just part of them, they only got $18 million.

That was the amount that Live Nation paid ultimately to those settling states.

That's exactly right.

So the federal government was going to exit the case and the Justice Department had led the case.

Their lawyers were the ones interviewing the witnesses, giving the opening statements, really running it.

And the states knew that they were at a severe disadvantage and they actually wanted to be able to have more time

to continue.

But the judge said, if you're not settling now, you have to continue the case with our jury.