Dear Internets:

By now you've heard the Justice Department approved the merger between TicketMaster and Live Nation, creating an un-Holy union of the world's largest ticketseller (140m tickets worlwide in 2009) and the world's largest concert promoter (roster: U2, Madonna, Jay-Z, The Sarah Palin 'You Betcha' Bluegrass Quartet, Miley Cyrus...you know, everybody).

You also have, my dear Internets, been inundated by eveyone with at least two fingers and a landline espousing how the newly minted Live Nation Entertainment (Ticketmaster owning 50.01% of the newly minted stock) spells death for the consumer: No market-place competition, higher event ticket surcharges, fewer and more expensive dates, and Bruce Springstein sacrificing a Golden Retriever puppy onstage nightly until the company is broken up...Okay, I made the last one up, but suffice it to say the conventional wisdom doesn't bode well for Carl and Christine Concertgoer.

Let's play devil's advocate for a second. It's been a while since Brian Mahoney's sloppily defended scantron got me that A- in macro-economics, but I seem to remember a concept called bilateral monopoly: Basically, when two parties who dominate their respective markets are locked into dealing with eachother on an ongoing basis, efficient transfers and dealings can be foreclosed due to the high costs of negotiation. Sound familiar? Because the outside competitive pressures are already lacking in a bilateral monopoly situation, in an effort to get as much as possible both parties ask too much, offer too little, and generally drive up the externalities inherent to any negotiation process generally. Such might be the case here. Christine Varney of DOJ seems to think with the provisions Justice is imposing on TicketMaster (selling ticketing software to AEG, 10 years of strict oversight), there might actually be DOWNWARD pressure on ticket prices. Coupled with a powerful bilateral monopoly being extinguished, the news might not be all bad.

(DISCLAIMER: As with everything else people write to you, Internets, take this theory with a grain of salt. If I actually had anything worthwhile to say, I wouldn't be anonymously yelling it at you. I would tell another human being. You know. In person. You, Internets, are just a wonderful captive audience.)

For an in-depth look at the anti-merger position, see ticketdisaster.org.

A little tidbit from the DOJ's press release: Apparently the Canadian Competition Bureau, or "Dudley Do-Not Compete," worked hand in hand with Varney and DOJ to make sure that the remedies requested stateside to get the deal OK'ed were also required in it's north of the border counterpart...Looks like my summer tradition of hopping in my '73 Winnebago and doing the Gordon Lightfoot "Carefree Highway Across Saskatchewan" tour is safe for another year.