What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2021-03-01 compared with 2020-02-27 · 153 added, 50 removed, 292 unchanged (41% of the section changed)

We believe that we are the largest live entertainment company in the world, connecting over 580 million fans across all of our concerts and ticketing platforms in 46 countries during 2019.

Impact of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

The unprecedented and rapid spread of COVID-19 and the related government restrictions and social distancing measures implemented throughout the world have significantly impacted our live event business.

We initially saw event restrictions in Asia and parts of Europe.

Beginning in March 2020, large public events were cancelled, governmental authorities began imposing restrictions on non-essential activities, and businesses suspended activities around the world.

As the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic became clearer, we ceased all Live Nation tours and closed our venues in mid-March 2020 to support global efforts at social distancing and mitigating the virus, and to comply with restrictions put in place by various governmental entities, which has had a materially negative impact on our revenue and financial position.

Operating Results

Our annual results were materially impacted by these necessary actions.

Our overall revenue for the year decreased by 84% to $1.9 billion.

The revenue reduction was across all of our segments as a result of few shows occurring globally beginning in the last half of March 2020 and low ticket sales for future shows during the same period, along with the impact of ticket refunds and show cancellations.

Our operating results for the year decreased as compared to 2019 largely due to the global COVID-19 pandemic impacts to our business to a loss for the year of $1.7 billion, including $27.5 million of impairment charges for 2020.

The revenue recognized in our Concerts segment in 2020 included the results of all the shows that occurred prior to the stoppage of events in mid-March.

Our event-related deferred revenue for Concerts, which is reported as part of deferred revenue on our consolidated balance sheets, includes the face value and Concerts’ share of service charges for all tickets sold by December 31, 2020, for shows expected to occur in the next 12 months.

Any refunds committed to for shows cancelled or rescheduled during the year have either been returned to fans or are reflected in accrued expenses on the consolidated balance sheets.

In addition, we have recorded an estimate of $102.0 million in Concerts for refunds that may occur in the future for shows we believe may be cancelled or rescheduled based on the limited amount of data available on refunds resulting from the global shutdown of our live events.

This estimate only impacts our financial position as a reclassification from deferred revenue or other long-term liabilities to accrued expenses.

We expect that the majority of our shows postponed due to the pandemic will be rescheduled.

Event-related deferred revenue for tickets sold for shows expected to occur after December 31, 2021 totaled $35 million and is reflected in other long-term liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets.

The revenue recognized in our Ticketing segment in 2020 includes our share of ticket service charges for tickets sold during the period for third-party clients and for shows that occurred in the period for our Concerts business where our promoters control the ticketing.

Revenue in the period has been reduced by refunds given during the period.

In addition, revenue has been reduced for any shows that were cancelled and for refunds requested on rescheduled shows up to the time of the filing of these consolidated financial statements, and funds have either been returned to the customer or are reflected in accrued expenses on the consolidated balance sheets.

Our ticketing clients determine if shows will be rescheduled or cancelled and what the refund policy will be for those shows.

We have not recorded an estimate for refunds that may occur in the future since our clients, not Ticketmaster, determine when shows are cancelled or rescheduled and we have a limited amount of historical data of refunds resulting from a global shutdown of live events on which to reliably determine an estimate.

By the end of 2020 and through the time of this filing, Ticketing had processed or accrued for cancellations or refunds on 27.4 million tickets.

For events that are cancelled, our standard policy is to refund the fan within 30 days, though subject to regulations in various markets and in some cases at the discretion of venue or event organizer clients.

Our ticket refund policies for rescheduled shows vary by ticketing client and country.

In multiple international markets, including Germany, Italy and Belgium, governmental regulations which allow for the issuance of vouchers in place of cash refunds for rescheduled shows, and in some cases for cancelled shows, have been put in place in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The volume and pace of cash refunds has had and may continue to have a material negative effect on our liquidity and capital resources.

The length and severity of the reduction in live events due to the pandemic is uncertain;

accordingly, we currently expect the negative impact to continue in 2021.

The exact timing and pace of the recovery is uncertain given the significant impact of the pandemic and the uncertainty on the timing of the roll out of vaccines on the overall United States and global economies.

We believe the ongoing effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on our operations have had, and will continue to have a material negative impact on our financial results and liquidity, and such negative impact may continue beyond the containment of such outbreak.

We have never previously experienced a complete cessation of our live events or a large-scale reduction in the number of events selling tickets, and as a consequence, our ability to be predictive regarding the impact of these circumstances is uncertain and we are unable to estimate the impact on our business, financial condition or near- or longer-term financial or operational results.

Cash and available liquidity

We amended our senior secured credit facility in April 2020 and further amended it in July 2020 which, among other things, substitutes our net leverage covenant under our senior secured credit facility with a $500 million liquidity covenant (as defined in the agreement) until the earlier of (a) December 31, 2021 and (b) at our election, any fiscal quarter prior to December 31, 2021.

These amendments will allow us the flexibility to manage our business through the disruption that we experienced in 2020 and expect to experience in 2021.

In addition, we added a new incremental revolving credit facility of $130 million, extending our undrawn debt capacity.

Following this increase, we currently have approximately $961.7 million in available debt capacity, including $400 million in undrawn term loan A capacity and $561.7 million in available revolver capacity, net of outstanding letters of credit.

In addition, in February 2020, we issued $400 million principal amount of 2.0% convertible senior notes due 2025 and in May 2020 we issued $1.2 billion principal amount of 6.5% senior secured notes due 2027.

In January 2021, we issued $500 million principal amount of 3.75% senior secured notes due 2028.

We will continue to evaluate future financing opportunities to further expand liquidity at reasonable costs.

As of December 31, 2020, our total cash and cash equivalents balance was $2.5 billion, which included $673.5 million of ticketing client cash.

We believe this cash, net of client cash, together with our available debt capacity of $961.7 million, gives us the liquidity to fund our operations during the pandemic.

Our total cash includes event-related deferred revenue for which the amount can fluctuate over the course of the year, but given the shift of shows into 2021, we expect this number to remain above seasonally normal levels throughout the first half of 2021.

Event-related deferred revenue consists of cash held by our Concerts business for future shows, with roughly half the funds associated with upcoming shows in the United States and half for international shows as of December 31, 2020.

In the United States, the funds are largely associated with shows in our owned or operated venues, notably amphitheaters, festivals, theaters and clubs.

Internationally, the funds held are from a combination of both shows in our owned or operated venues, as well as shows in third-party venues associated with our promoter share of tickets in allocation markets.

We do not otherwise generally hold funds for concerts being held in third-party buildings.

In the United States, venues traditionally hold all funds, and internationally either the venue holds all funds or holds the portion of funds associated with their ticket allocation.

Cost and Cash Management Programs

Given the uncertainty associated with the duration of current conditions globally, we have implemented a number of initiatives to reduce fixed costs and conserve cash.

As part of these cost reduction efforts, we have implemented salary reductions for most of our employees, with salaries for senior executives reduced by up to 60% during 2020.

Additional cost reduction efforts include hiring freezes, reduction in the use of contractors, rent re-negotiations, furloughs, termination of certain employees and reduction or elimination of other discretionary spending, including, among other things, travel and entertainment, repairs and maintenance, and marketing.

We are also making use of government support programs globally.

In most European and Asian markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Australia, there were payroll support programs to mitigate a substantial portion of employee costs, some of which are continuing into 2021.

Additionally, in the United States, we have filed for payroll support under the Employee Retention Credit program established as part of the 2020 CARES Act.

Finally, the CARES Act also provides for deferred payment of the employer portion of social security taxes through the end of 2020, with 50% of the deferred amount due December 31, 2021 and the remaining 50% due December 31, 2022.

We are further protecting our cash outflows by reducing advances in both our ticketing and concert businesses, re-assessing all capital expenditure projects and evaluating all other cash deployment activities.

As a result of these initiatives and government support programs, we achieved over $950 million in cost reductions in 2020 and the elimination or deferral into 2021 of $1.6 billion in cash outflows, which primarily includes the cost reductions discussed above along with lower capital expenditures, acquisition payments, and concert and ticketing advances.

We believe this aggressive cost and cash management program, combined with a strong liquidity profile, positions us to manage through the global COVID-19 pandemic-related hold on show activity and provides the flexibility to scale up quickly when shows restart.

Based on these actions and assumptions regarding the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that we will remain in compliance with our debt covenants throughout 2021 and be able to generate sufficient liquidity to satisfy our obligations for the next twelve months, prior to giving effect to any additional financings that may occur.

Our forecasted expense management and liquidity measures may be modified as we get more clarity on the timing of events.

We cannot assure you that our assumptions used to estimate our liquidity requirements will be correct because we have never previously experienced a complete cessation of our live events and the magnitude, duration and speed of the global pandemic is unknown, and as a consequence, our ability to be predictive is uncertain.

Health and Safety and Planning for a Return to Business

We are currently planning for the health and safety of our employees as they return to work in our offices in the future, and for our artists and fans as they return to live events.

We will return to work in local markets only after there is clear guidance that the time is right to do so, and then in appropriate numbers with expanded cleaning and any social distancing or other regulations.

Similarly, we are planning for the resumption of concerts when the time is right.

We will let the facts and science tell us when we should start putting on concerts again.

We recognize the experience at our venues will change when concerts start back up, and are working with medical experts and public health officials to implement safety precautions and protocols necessary for fans to return to enjoy our shows.

Recent fan surveys indicate that the demand will be there when the shows return, with 95% of fans expecting to attend concerts again once the pandemic is over.

We expect the re-opening of concerts will happen on a market by market basis, and given we operate in 46 countries globally, the timelines will vary from now to not for several months or beyond.

The length and severity of the impact to live events and our related sponsorship and ticketing businesses is still uncertain.

We currently do not anticipate a significant change in activity levels until early in the second half of 2021.

We expect that most global tours will resume and larger venues will reopen in the second half of 2021 and that the underlying business will begin generating operating income once again.

While this disruption has had a material impact on our business, as the leading global live event and ticketing company we believe that we are well-positioned to provide the best service to artists, teams, fans and venues once business resumes.

Twenty years of global growth demonstrates the resilience of fan demand for the live entertainment experience.

We are actively taking steps to ensure that when the time is right for us to do so, we will be ready to ramp back up quickly and once again connect audiences to artists at the concerts they are looking forward to.

Because of the impact that the pandemic has had on our business in 2020, we are using operational metrics below based on 2019 results as they are more representative of the size of our business.

We believe that we are the largest live entertainment company in the world, connecting over 580 million fans across all of our concerts and ticketing platforms in 46 countries.

We believe we are the largest producer of live music concerts in the world, based on total fans that attend Live Nation events as compared to events of other promoters, connecting nearly 98 million fans to more than 40,000 events for over 5,000 artists in 2019.

Live Nation owns, operates, has exclusive booking rights for or has an equity interest in 273 venues, including House of Blues ® music venues and prestigious locations such as The Fillmore ® in San Francisco, the Hollywood Palladium, the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, 3Arena in Ireland, Royal Arena in Copenhagen and Spark Arena in New Zealand.

Live Nation owns, operates, has exclusive booking rights for or has an equity interest in 289 venues, including House of Blues ® music venues and prestigious locations such as The Fillmore ® in San Francisco, Brooklyn Bowl ® , the Hollywood Palladium, the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, 3Arena in Ireland, Royal Arena in Copenhagen and Spark Arena in New Zealand.

We believe we are one of the world’s leading artist management companies based on the number of artists represented.

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We believe we are the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing sales and marketing company, based on the number of tickets we sell.

Ticketmaster provides ticket sales, ticket resale services and marketing and distribution globally through www.ticketmaster.com and www.livenation.com and our other websites, mobile apps, numerous retail outlets and call centers, selling over 485 million tickets in 2019 through our systems.

Ticketmaster serves nearly 11,500 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing ticketing services for leading arenas, stadiums, festival and concert promoters, professional sports franchises and leagues, college sports teams, performing arts venues, museums and theaters.

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We will deliver more shows, grow our fan base and increase our ticket sales by continuing to build our portfolio of concerts globally, expanding our business into additional top global music markets, and further building our presence in existing markets.

Through our strong partnership with artist managers, we believe we can continue to expand our concert base by delivering strong and consistent services to our artist managers and their clients.

Through our strong partnership with artists, agents and managers, we believe we can continue to expand our concert base by delivering strong and consistent services.

• Grow our Revenue per Show.

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We will continue to drive growth in our sponsorship relationships and capture a larger share of the global music sponsorship market.

We will focus on expanding existing partnerships and developing new corporate sponsor partners to provide them with targeted strategic programs, accessing our nearly 98 million fans attending our shows each year.

We will focus on expanding existing partnerships and developing new corporate sponsor partners to provide them with targeted strategic programs, accessing the fans attending our shows each year.

We will continue to develop and to scale new products in order to drive onsite revenue.

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We believe we have unique resources that are unmatched in the live entertainment industry.

During 2019, we connected over 580 million fans to their favorite live event.

We connected over 580 million fans to their favorite live event in 2019.

Our database of fans and their interests provides us with the means to efficiently market our shows to them.

We have extensive relationships with artists ranging from those just beginning their careers to established superstars.

In 2019, we promoted shows or tours for over 5,000 artists globally.

We promoted shows or tours for over 5,000 artists globally in 2019.

In addition, through our artist management companies, we manage more than 500 artists.

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In addition, we own, operate, have exclusive booking rights for, or have an equity interest in, 289 venues located across 46 countries as of the end of 2020, making us, we believe, the second largest operator of music venues in the world.

We also believe that we are one of the largest music festival producers in the world with 111 festivals globally.

In addition, we believe that our global ticketing distribution network—which includes one of the largest ecommerce sites and related apps along with nearly 11,500 clients worldwide—makes us the largest ticketing network in the world.

We employ a sales force of over 500 people that worked with nearly 1,200 sponsors during 2019, through a combination of strategic partnerships, local venue-related deals, national agreements and digital campaigns, both in North America and internationally.

We also believe that we are one of the largest music festival producers in the world with 111 festivals globally in 2019.

In addition, we believe that our global ticketing distribution network—which includes one of the largest ecommerce sites and related apps along with nearly 11,500 clients worldwide in 2019—makes us the largest ticketing network in the world.

We employ a sales force of over 500 people that works with nearly 1,200 sponsors, through a combination of strategic partnerships, local venue-related deals, national agreements and digital campaigns, both in North America and internationally.

Our sponsors include some of the most well-recognized national and global brands including Citibank, O 2 , American Express, Cisco, Hilton, Red Bull and Anheuser Busch (each of these brands is a registered trademark of the sponsor).

We were incorporated in Delaware on August 2, 2005 in preparation for the contribution and transfer by Clear Channel Communications, Inc.

of substantially all of its entertainment assets and liabilities to us.

We completed this separation on December 21, 2005, and became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange trading under the symbol “LYV.”

On January 25, 2010, we merged with Ticketmaster Entertainment LLC and it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Live Nation.

Effective with the merger, Live Nation, Inc.

changed its name to Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.

We operate in the following main industries within the live entertainment business:

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Including intersegment revenue, our Concerts business generated $1.5 billion, or 78.9%, of our total revenue during 2020.

We promoted more than 40,000 live music and other events in 2019, including Metallica, Ariana Grande, Bon Jovi, P!nk and Backstreet Boys and through festivals including Rock in Rio, Austin City Limits, Lollapolooza, Electric Daisy Carnival, Rock Werchter, Reading and Bonnaroo.

While our Concerts segment operates year-round, we generally experience higher revenue during the second and third quarters due to the seasonal nature of shows at our outdoor amphitheaters and festivals, which primarily occur from May through October.

We promoted more than 8,000 live music and other events in 2020.

While our Concerts segment operates year-round traditionally, we experience higher revenue during the second and third quarters due to the seasonal nature of shows at our outdoor amphitheaters and festivals, which primarily occur from May through October.

Due to the unprecedented stoppage of our concert events globally in mid-March due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, we did not promote our usual number of shows or experience our typical seasonality trends in 2020.

As a promoter, we earn revenue primarily from the sale of tickets and pay artists under one of several formulas, including a fixed guaranteed amount and/or a percentage of ticket sales or event profits.

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Since the artist fees are typically fixed guarantees for these events, significant increases or decreases in festival promotion revenue will generally result in comparable changes to operating income.

Our Ticketing segment is primarily an agency business that sells tickets for events on behalf of its clients and retains a fee, or service charge, for these services.

Our Ticketing segment is primarily an agency business that sells tickets for events on behalf of its clients and retains a portion of the service charge as its fee.

We sell tickets for our events and also for third-party clients across multiple live event categories, providing ticketing services for leading arenas, stadiums, amphitheaters, music clubs, concert promoters, professional sports franchises and leagues, college sports teams, performing arts venues, museums and theaters.

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Our Ticketing segment also manages our online activities including enhancements to our websites and product offerings.

Including intersegment revenue, our Ticketing business generated $1.5 billion, or 13.4%, of our total revenue during 2019, which excludes the face value of tickets sold and is net of the fees paid to our ticketing clients.

Including intersegment revenue, our Ticketing business generated $188.4 million, or 10.1%, of our total revenue during 2020, which excludes the face value of tickets sold and is net of the fees paid to our ticketing clients.

Through all of our ticketing services, we sold 31 million tickets in 2020 on which we were paid fees for our services.

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As ticket sales increase, related ticketing operating income generally increases as well.

Due to the unprecedented stoppage of live events globally in mid-March or reduction in the number of fans in attendance due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, we did not sell our usual number of tickets in 2020.

We sell tickets on behalf of our clients through our ticketing platforms across the world.

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We typically experience higher revenue in the second and third quarters as a large portion of sponsorships are typically associated with our outdoor venues and festivals, which are primarily used in or occur from May through October.

Due to the unprecedented stoppage of our concert events globally in mid-March due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, we did not recognize our normal amount of sponsorship revenue or experience our typical seasonality trends in 2020.

We believe that we have a unique opportunity to connect the music fan to corporate sponsors and therefore seek to optimize this relationship through strategic sponsorship programs.

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• Restaurants & Music Halls —Restaurants & Music Halls are indoor venues that offer customers an integrated live music, entertainment and dining experience.

This category includes our House of Blues ® venues whose live music halls are specially designed to provide optimum acoustics and typically can accommodate between 1,000 to 2,000 guests.

This category includes our House of Blues ® and Brooklyn Bowl ® venues whose live music halls are specially designed to provide optimum acoustics and typically can accommodate between 1,000 to 2,000 guests.

A full-service restaurant and bar is located adjacent to the live music hall.

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Restaurants & Music Halls 1,000 - 2,000 2 12 — — — 14

Festival Sites * Varies 5 — 33 — — 38

Festival Sites (1)

Varies 5 — 37 — — 42

Other Venues Varies — 7 — — 3 10

Total venues in operation (2)

28 149 54 52 6 289

Venues currently under construction — 8 1 — 3 12

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We have aggregated the agreements for each festival site and reported them as one festival site.

(2) Venues in operation includes our venues that were closed temporarily beginning in mid-March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Competition in the live entertainment industry is intense.

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• our ecommerce site and its extensive database;

• our diverse distribution platform (venues);

• our diverse distribution platform of venues;

• the scope, effectiveness and expertise of our advertising and sponsorship programs;

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We believe that barriers to entry into the promotion services business are low and that certain local promoters are increasingly expanding the geographic scope of their operations.

Some of our competitors in the live music promotion industry are Anschutz Entertainment Group, or AEG, Frontier Touring, Another Planet Entertainment, Jam Productions, Ltd.

Some of our competitors in the live music promotion industry are Anschutz Entertainment Group, or AEG, Another Planet Entertainment, Jam Productions, Ltd.

and I.M.P in addition to numerous smaller regional companies and various casinos and venues in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

AEG operates under a number of different names including AEG Live, Concerts West, Goldenvoice and The Messina Group.

AEG operates under a number of different names including AEG Presents, Concerts West, Frontier Touring, Goldenvoice and Messina Touring Group.

Some of our competitors in the live music industry have a stronger presence in certain markets, have access to other sports and entertainment venues and may have greater financial resources in those markets, which may enable them to gain a greater competitive advantage in relation to us.

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Consequently, touring artists have various alternatives to our venues when scheduling tours.

Our main competitors in venue management include ASM Global, The Madison Square Garden Company, The Nederlander Organization and Bowery Presents, in addition to numerous smaller regional companies in North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand.

Our main competitors in venue management include ASM Global, Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., The Nederlander Organization and Bowery Presents, in addition to numerous smaller regional companies in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Some of our competitors in venue management may have more attractive or a greater number of venues in certain markets, and may have greater financial resources in those markets.

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In addition, we and our venues are subject to extensive environmental laws and regulations relating to the use, storage, disposal, emission and release of hazardous and non-hazardous substances, as well as zoning and noise level restrictions which may affect, among other things, the hours of operations of and the type of events we can produce at our venues.

Intellectual Property

We create, own and distribute intellectual property worldwide.

It is our practice to protect our trademarks, brands, copyrights, patents and other original and acquired works.

We have registered many of our trademarks and patents in the United States and in numerous foreign countries.

We believe that our intellectual property has significant value and is important to our brand-building efforts and the marketing of our products and services.

We cannot predict, however, whether steps taken by us to protect our proprietary rights will be adequate to prevent misappropriation of these rights.

As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately 10,500 full-time employees, including 6,700 in North America and 3,800 international employees, of which approximately 10,300 were employed in our operations departments and approximately 200 were employed in our corporate group.

Our staffing needs vary significantly throughout the year.

Our People and Culture

Bringing more than 40,000 events to life and connecting over 580 million fans across all of our concerts and ticketing platforms, as we did in 2019 prior to the global Covid-19 pandemic, is a massive undertaking, made possible by our thousands of employees spread across 46 countries.

Our teams come together every day to grow our business, and we recognize our people are the key to our success—whether they’re putting on a show at one of our venues, selling tickets, working with our brand partners or supporting our businesses in a myriad of other ways.

Taking Care of Our Own

Our core value with our employees is “taking care of our own,” which means our top priority is making sure that every employee can rely on the company to go above just providing standard compensation and benefits by offering assistance for a range of planned and unplanned situations.

We also ensure that our employees have direct access to senior executives to raise concerns and share ideas.

Our programs are structured under seven core pillars, designed to support key life moments:

• Taking Care of Yourself :

To enhance overall happiness and wellness, we offer flexible vacation time, free ticket perks and in-house meditation sessions, crisis support and crowdfunding networks, and more.

• Taking Care of Your Health :

Beyond a full suite of medical, dental and vision benefits, we provide access to virtual doctor’s appointments and mental health services.

• Taking Care of Your Family :

We provide assistance with fertility needs such as egg-freezing, egg-donation and IVF, as well as adoption or surrogacy, primary caregiver leave for new parents, sick leave to care for loved ones, and leave for bereavement or end-of-life care.

• Taking Care of Your Career :

We offer many different career advancement opportunities including leadership workshops for mid-career employees, recognition for successful patent applications, live and on-demand training and tuition reimbursement to further an ongoing education.

• Taking Care of Your Wealth :

To support long-term financial goals, we have traditionally provided 401(k) or pension matching, a stock reimbursement program, and student loan repayment assistance.

• Taking Care of Our Own :

During life’s most difficult moments, we offer employees financial support to help them through a variety of crises, including unexpected deaths, natural disasters, and escaping domestic violence.

To this end, in March 2020, in partnership with House of Blues Music Forward Foundation, we announced Crew Nation, a global relief fund offering financial support to live music crews while concerts are on pause due to the pandemic to which we have donated over $10 million.

• Taking Care of Others :

In order to empower our employees to get involved in causes that are meaningful to them, we provide paid time off for them to volunteer in their local communities.

While some of these programs have temporarily been impacted by the pandemic, our strong commitment of taking care of every employee makes Live Nation a better place, which in turn helps drive our operating successes.

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

We are continually striving towards our goal of being as diverse as the fans and artists that we serve, with an aim to uplift people across race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other underrepresented groups.

Programs key to this mission include:

• Live Nation Women Fund :

An early-stage investment fund we have created focused on female-led live music businesses.

• Promotion and pay :

Ongoing reviews of positions and compensation with the goal of ensuring that all employees across Live Nation are paid appropriately and provided with promotion opportunities, regardless of individual demographics.

• Employee Resource Groups :

Programs that focus on empowering underrepresented groups within our employee base through career development, networking, talent development, advocacy, non-profit support and community outreach.

Our employees have created a network of over 40 local chapters across seven groups, with over 8,000 employees attending the over 140 events held across the world in 2019.

• 2025 Diversity Goals :

In July 2020, in response to events in the U.S.

and around the world that sparked overdue reflection on racism and discrimination in our societies, we announced ambitious goals to strengthen the company’s diversity from the top down that we will strive to obtain by the end of 2025.

Human Capital

Our compensation philosophy is focused on attracting and retaining talented individuals who contribute to our values and help lead our dynamic and innovative environment.

To determine market-competitive pay for our employees, we use a combination of entertainment and technology industry benchmarks.

We are committed to encouraging and rewarding pay-for-performance that is aligned with business objectives in the best interest of our shareholders for long-term growth and profitability.

We further strive to reward individual achievements and contributions that are both aligned with and supportive of our short- and long-term goals and core business values.

We believe that our efforts in these areas are working and contributing to the overall success of the company, as evidenced by accolades such as obtaining a Great Place to Work® certification (2017-19), placing fourth on Indeed's list of the World's 50 Best Workplaces (2019), placing third on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list for the music sector (2019), and our inclusion on Forbes’ Best Employers For Diversity list (2019).

As of December 31, 2020, we had approximately 8,200 full-time employees, including those on furlough due to the interruption in our business from the pandemic.

During regular operational times, our staffing needs vary significantly throughout the year.

Therefore, we also employ seasonal and part-time employees, primarily for our live music venues and festivals.

As of December 31, 2019, we employed approximately 15,400 seasonal and part-time employees and during peak seasonal periods, particularly in the summer months, we employed as many as 28,000 seasonal and part-time employees in 2019.

At the end of 2019, prior to the pandemic, we employed approximately 15,400 seasonal and part-time employees and during peak seasonal periods, particularly in the summer months, we employed as many as 28,000 seasonal and part-time employees in 2019.

Labor Relations

The stagehands at some of our venues and other employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements.

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Michael Rapino 55 President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Ron Bension 65 President–HOB Entertainment

Joe Berchtold 56 President

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John Hopmans 62 Executive Vice President–Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Finance

Amy Howe 47 President–Ticketmaster North America

John Reid 59 President–Europe Concerts

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Michael Rowles 55 General Counsel and Secretary

Jared Smith 42 President–Ticketmaster

Russell Wallach 55 President–Sponsorship and Advertising

Kathy Willard 54 Chief Financial Officer

Mark Yovich 45 President–Ticketmaster International

Mark Yovich 46 President–Ticketmaster

Michael Rapino is our President and Chief Executive Officer and has served in this capacity since August 2005.

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Rapino has worked for us or our predecessors since 1999.

Ron Bension is President of our HOB Entertainment division and has served in this capacity since November 2010.

Bension has worked for us or our predecessors since joining us in January 2010.

Joe Berchtold is our President and has served in this capacity since December 2017.

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John Hopmans is our Executive Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Finance and has served in this capacity since joining us in April 2008.

Amy Howe is President of Ticketmaster’s North America division and has served in this capacity since February 2019.

Prior to that, Ms.

Howe served as Chief Operating Officer of Ticketmaster North America since January 2016.

Previously, Ms.

Howe served as our Chief Strategy Officer since joining us in April 2014.

John Reid is President of our Europe Concerts division and has served in this capacity since joining us in January 2012.

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Michael Rowles is our General Counsel and has served in this capacity since joining us in March 2006 and as our Secretary since May 2007.

Jared Smith is President of Ticketmaster and has served in this capacity since January 2018.

Prior to that, Mr.

Smith served as President of Ticketmaster’s North America division since May 2013 and has worked for us or our predecessors since 2003.

Russell Wallach is President of our Sponsorship and Advertising division and has served in this capacity since July 2006.

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Willard has worked for us or our predecessors since 1998.

Mark Yovich is President of Ticketmaster’s International division and has served in this capacity since November 2011.

Mark Yovich is President of Ticketmaster and has served in this capacity since December 2020.

Prior to that, Mr.

Yovich served as President of Ticketmaster’s International division since November 2011.

Yovich has worked for us or our predecessors since 2000.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business