Item 1. BUSINESS

Our Company

We believe that we are the largest live entertainment company in the world, connecting over 570 million fans across all of our concerts and ticketing platforms in approximately 44 countries during 2018.

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 93 million fans to almost 35,000 events for over 4,500 artists in 2018. Live Nation owns, operates, has exclusive booking rights for or has an equity interest in 237 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. We believe we are one of the world’s leading artist management companies based on the number of artists represented. Our artist management companies manage music artists and acts across all music genres. As of December 31, 2018, we had nearly 110 managers providing services to more than 400 artists.

We believe our global footprint is the world’s largest music advertising network for corporate brands and includes one of the world’s leading ecommerce websites, based on a comparison of gross sales of top internet retailers.

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, numerous retail outlets and call centers, selling over 480 million tickets in 2018 through our systems. Ticketmaster serves approximately 12,000 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.

Our principal executive offices are located at 9348 Civic Center Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90210 (telephone: 310-867-7000). Our principal website is www.livenationentertainment.com. Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol “LYV.”

Our Strategy

Our strategy is to grow our leadership position in live entertainment, to promote more shows, sell more tickets and partner with more sponsors, thereby increasing our revenue, earnings and cash flow. We serve artists, venues and teams to secure content and tickets; we invest in technology to build innovative products which advance our ticketing, advertising and mobile platforms; and we are paid by advertisers that want to connect their brands with our passionate fan base.

Our core businesses surrounding the promotion of live events include ticketing, and sponsorship and advertising. We believe our focus on growing these businesses will increase shareholder value as we continue to enhance our revenue streams and achieve economies of scale with our global platforms. We also continue to strengthen our core operations, further expanding into global markets and optimizing our cost structure. Our strategy is to grow and innovate through the initiatives listed below.

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Expand our Concert Platform. 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.

•	Grow our Revenue per Show. We will grow our revenue per show across our venues through more effective ticket pricing, broader ticketing distribution and more targeted promotional marketing. We will also grow our onsite fan monetization through improved onsite products, merchandising, and enhanced buying experiences for our fans.

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Sell More Tickets and Invest in Product Improvements. We are focused on selling tickets through a wide set of sales channels, including mobile and online, and leveraging our fan database. We will continue to enhance our API features to reach a broader audience and expand our digital ticketing rollout, strengthening control distribution for all parties and creating new and unique marketing opportunities. We will grow the volume of secondary tickets sold through a trusted environment for fan ticket exchanges, allowing our fans to have a dependable, secure destination for secondary ticket acquisition for all events. We will continue to invest in our ticketing platforms and develop innovative products to build fan traffic to our sales channels, drive increased ticket sales, and continue to build our client base.

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Grow Sponsorship and Advertising Partnerships. 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 93 million fans attending our shows each year. We will continue to develop and to scale new products in order to drive onsite revenue.

Our Strengths

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

•	Fans. During 2018, we connected over 570 million fans to their favorite live event. Our database of fans and their interests provides us with the means to efficiently market our shows to them.

•	Artists. We have extensive relationships with artists ranging from those just beginning their careers to established superstars. In 2018, we promoted shows or tours for over 4,500 artists globally. In addition, through our artist management companies, we manage more than 400 artists.

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Online Services and Ticketing. We own and operate various branded websites, both in the United States and abroad, which are customized to reflect services offered in each jurisdiction. Our primary websites, www.livenation.com and www.ticketmaster.com, together with our other branded ticketing websites, are designed to promote ticket sales for live events. We also have both Live Nation and Ticketmaster mobile apps that our fans can use to access event information and buy tickets.

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Distribution Network. We believe that our global distribution network of promoters, venues and festivals provides us with a strong position in the live concert industry. We believe we have one of the largest global networks of live entertainment businesses in the world, with offices in 40 countries worldwide. In addition, we own, operate, have exclusive booking rights for, or have an equity interest in, 237 venues located across 11 countries as of the end of 2018, 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 104 festivals globally. In addition, we believe that our global ticketing distribution network—which includes one of the largest ecommerce sites and apps, with over 61 million downloads and approximately 12,000 clients worldwide—makes us the largest ticketing network in the world.

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Sponsors. We employ a sales force of over 450 people that worked with over 1,000 sponsors during 2018, 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, O2, American Express, Pepsi, Cisco, Hilton and Anheuser Busch (each of these brands is a registered trademark of the sponsor).

Our History

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.

Our Industry

We operate in the following main industries within the live entertainment business: live music events, music venue operations, the provision of management and other services to artists, sponsorship and advertising sales, and ticketing services.

The live music industry includes concert promotion and/or production of music events or tours. Typically, to initiate live music events or tours, booking agents contract with artists to represent them for defined periods. Booking agents then contact promoters, who will contract with them or with artists directly, to arrange events. Promoters earn revenue primarily from the sale of tickets. Artists are paid by the promoter under one of several different formulas, which may include fixed guarantees and/or a percentage of ticket sales or event profits. In addition, promoters may also reimburse artists for certain costs of production, such as sound and lights. Under guaranteed payment formulas, promoters assume the risks of unprofitable events. Promoters may renegotiate lower guarantees or cancel events because of insufficient ticket sales in order to reduce their losses. Promoters can also reduce the risk of losses by entering into global or national touring agreements with artists and including the right to offset lower performing shows against higher performing shows on the tour in the determination of overall artist fees. Artist managers primarily provide services to music recording artists to manage their careers. The artist manager negotiates on behalf of the artist and is paid a fee, generally as a percentage of the artist’s earnings.

For music tours, two to nine months typically elapse between initially booking artists and the first performances. Promoters, in conjunction with artists, managers and booking agents, set ticket prices and advertise events. Promoters market events, sell tickets, rent or otherwise provide venues and arrange for local production services, such as stages and equipment.

Venue operators typically contract with promoters to have their venues rented for specific events on specific dates and receive fixed fees or percentages of ticket sales as rental income. In addition, venue operators provide services such as concessions, parking, security, ushering and ticket-taking, and receive some or all of the revenue from concessions, merchandise, parking and premium seating.

The sponsorship and advertising industry within the live entertainment business involves the sale of international, national, regional and local advertising and promotional programs to a variety of companies to advertise or promote their brand, product or service. These sponsorships typically include venue naming rights, onsite venue signage, online advertisements and exclusive partner rights in various categories such as credit card, beverage, travel and telecommunications, and may include event pre-sales and onsite product activation.

Ticketing services include the sale of tickets primarily through online and mobile channels but also through phone, outlet and box office channels. Ticketing companies will contract with venues and/or promoters to sell tickets to events over a period of time, generally three to five years. The ticketing company generally gets paid a fixed fee per ticket sold or a percentage of the total ticket service charges. The ticketing company receives the cash for the ticket sales and related service charges at the time the ticket is sold and periodically remits these receipts to the venue and/or promoter after deducting its fee. Venues will often also sell tickets through a local box office at the venue using the ticketing company’s technology. The ticketing company will generally not earn a fee on these box office tickets.

Ticketing resale services generally refers to the sale of tickets by a holder who originally obtained the tickets from a venue or other entity, or a ticketing services provider selling on behalf of a venue or other entity. Resale tickets are also referred to as secondary tickets. Generally, the ticket resale company is paid a service charge when the ticket is resold and the negotiated ticket value is paid to the holder.

Our Business

Our reportable segments are Concerts, Sponsorship & Advertising and Ticketing.

Concerts. Our Concerts segment principally involves the global promotion of live music events in our owned or operated venues and in rented third-party venues, the operation and management of music venues, the production of music festivals across the world, the creation of associated content and the provision of management and other services to artists. Including intersegment revenue, our Concerts business generated $8.8 billion, or 81.3%, of our total revenue during 2018. We promoted almost 35,000 live music and other events in 2018, including artists such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, P!nk, Kevin Hart, Justin Timberlake, Imagine Dragons and Bruno Mars and through festivals such as Austin City Limits, Lollapolooza, Electric Daisy

Carnival, Rock Werchter, Reading and Download. 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.

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. For each event we promote, we either use a venue we own or operate, or rent a third-party venue. Revenue is generally impacted by the number of events, volume of ticket sales and ticket prices. Event costs such as artist fees and production expenses are included in direct operating expenses and are typically substantial in relation to the revenue. As a result, significant increases or decreases in promotion revenue do not typically result in comparable changes to operating income.

As a venue operator, we generate revenue primarily from the sale of concessions, parking, premium seating, rental income and ticket rebates or service charges earned on tickets sold through our internal ticketing operations or by third parties under ticketing agreements. In our amphitheaters, the sale of concessions is outsourced and we receive a share of the net revenue from the concessionaire, which is recorded in revenue with limited associated direct operating expenses. Revenue generated from venue operations typically has a higher margin than promotion revenue and therefore typically has a more direct relationship to changes in operating income.

As a festival promoter, we typically book artists, secure festival sites, provide for third-party production services, sell tickets and advertise events to attract fans. We also provide or arrange for third parties to provide operational services as needed such as concessions, merchandising and security. We earn revenue from the sale of tickets and typically pay artists a fixed guaranteed amount. We also earn revenue from the sale of concessions, camping fees and service charges earned on tickets sold. For each event, we either use a festival site we own or rent a third-party festival site. Revenue is generally impacted by the number of events, volume of ticket sales and ticket prices. Event costs such as artist fees and production expenses are included in direct operating expenses and are typically substantial in relation to the revenue. 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.

Sponsorship & Advertising. Our Sponsorship & Advertising segment employs a sales force that creates and maintains relationships with sponsors through a combination of strategic, international, national and local opportunities that allow businesses to reach customers through our concert, festival, venue, artist relationship and ticketing assets, including advertising on our websites. We work with our corporate clients to help create marketing programs that support their business goals and connect their brands directly with fans and artists. We also develop, book and produce custom events or programs for our clients’ specific brands, which are typically presented exclusively to the clients’ consumers. These custom events can involve live music events with talent and media, using both online and traditional outlets. Including intersegment revenue, our Sponsorship & Advertising business generated $504 million, or 4.7%, of our total revenue during 2018. 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.

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. We continue to also pursue the sale of national and local sponsorships, both domestically and internationally, and placement of advertising, including signage, online advertising and promotional programs. Many of our venues have naming rights sponsorship programs. We believe national and international sponsorships allow us to maximize our network of venues and festivals and to arrange multi-venue or multi-festival branding opportunities for advertisers. Our local and venue-focused sponsorships include venue signage, promotional programs, onsite activation, hospitality and tickets, and are derived from a variety of client companies across various industry categories.

Ticketing. 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. 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. We sell tickets through websites, mobile apps, ticket outlets and telephone call centers. During the year ended December 31, 2018, we sold 52%, 43%, 4% and 1% of primary tickets through these channels, respectively. 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 14.2%, of our total revenue during 2018, 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 217 million tickets in 2018 on which we were paid fees for our services. In addition, approximately 265 million tickets were sold using our Ticketmaster systems, including through season seat packages, our venue clients’ box offices, and other channels through which we do not receive a fee. Our ticketing sales are impacted by fluctuations in the availability of events for sale to the public, which may vary depending upon event scheduling by our clients. As ticket sales increase, related Ticketing operating income generally increases as well.

We sell tickets on behalf of our clients through our ticketing platforms across the world. We generally enter into written agreements with individual clients to provide primary ticketing services for specified multi-year periods, typically ranging from three to five years. Pursuant to these agreements, clients generally determine and then tell us what tickets will be available for sale, when such tickets will go on sale to the public and what the ticket price will be, sometimes with our guidance and recommendations. Agreements with venue clients in North America and Australia generally grant us exclusive rights to sell tickets for all events presented at the relevant venue for which tickets are made available to the general public. Agreements with promoter clients in other international markets generally grant us the right to an allocation of tickets for events presented by a given promoter at any venue, unless that venue is already covered by an existing exclusive agreement with our ticketing business or another ticketing service provider. Similarly, in such international markets we have venue agreements which provide Ticketmaster an allocation of tickets for all events at those venues. Where we have exclusive venue contracts, clients may not utilize, authorize or promote the services of third-party ticketing companies or technologies while under contract with us. While we generally have the right to sell a substantial portion of our clients’ tickets, venue and promoter clients often sell and distribute a portion of their tickets in-house through their box office and season ticket programs. In addition, under many written agreements between promoters and our clients, and generally subject to Ticketmaster approval, the client may allocate certain tickets for artist, promoter, agent and venue use and not make those tickets available for sale by us. Due to these and other permitted third-party ticket distribution channels, we do not always sell all of our clients’ tickets, even at venues where we are the exclusive primary ticketing service provider, and the amount of tickets that we sell varies from client to client and from event to event, and also varies as to any given client from year to year.

We currently offer ticket resale services, sometimes referred to as secondary ticketing, principally through our integrated inventory platform, league/team platforms and other platforms internationally. We enter into arrangements with the holders of tickets previously distributed by a venue or other source to post those tickets for sale at a purchase price equal to a new sales price, determined by the ticket holder, plus a service fee to the buyer. The seller in this circumstance receives the new sales price less a seller service fee.

Live Nation Venue Details

In the live entertainment industry, venue types generally consist of:

•	Stadiums—Stadiums are multi-purpose facilities, often housing local sports teams. Stadiums typically have 30,000 or more seats. Although they are the largest venues available for live music, they are not specifically designed for live music.

•	Amphitheaters—Amphitheaters are generally outdoor venues with between 5,000 and 30,000 seats that are used primarily in the summer season. We believe they are popular because they are designed specifically for concert events, with premium seat packages and better lines of sight and acoustics.

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Arenas—Arenas are indoor venues that are used as multi-purpose facilities, often housing local sports teams. Arenas typically have between 5,000 and 20,000 seats. Because they are indoors, they are able to offer amenities that other similar-sized outdoor venues cannot, such as luxury suites and premium club memberships. As a result, we believe they are popular for higher-priced concerts aimed at audiences willing to pay for these amenities.

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Theaters—Theaters are indoor venues that are built primarily for music events, but may include theatrical performances. These venues typically have a capacity of between 1,000 and 6,500. Theaters represent less risk to concert promoters because they have lower fixed costs associated with hosting a concert and may provide a more appropriately-sized venue for developing artists and more artists in general. Because these venues have a smaller capacity than an amphitheater or arena, they do not offer as much economic upside on a per show basis.

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Clubs—Clubs are indoor venues that are built primarily for music events, but may also include comedy clubs. These venues typically have a capacity of less than 1,000 and often without full fixed seating. Because of their small size, they do not offer as much economic upside, but they also represent less risk to a concert promoter because they have lower fixed costs associated with hosting a concert and also may provide a more appropriately-sized venue for developing artists. Clubs can also be used year-round.

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House of Blues—House of Blues venues are our branded indoor venues that offer customers an integrated live music and dining experience. The 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. We believe that the strength of the brand and the quality of the food, service and unique atmosphere in our restaurants attract customers to these venues independently from an entertainment event and generate a significant amount of repeat business from local customers.

•	Festival Sites—Festival sites are outdoor locations used primarily in the summer season to stage large single-day or multi-day concert events featuring several artists on multiple stages. Depending on the location, festival site capacities can range from 10,000 to over 100,000 fans per day. We believe they are popular because of the value provided to the

fan by packaging several artists together for an event. While festival sites only host a few events each year, they can provide higher operating income because we are able to generate income from many different services provided at the event.

The following table summarizes the number of venues by type that we owned, leased, operated, had exclusive booking rights for or had an equity interest in as of December 31, 2018:

Venue Type		Capacity		Owned			Leased			Operated			Exclusive Booking Rights			Equity Interest			Total
Stadium		More than 30,000		—			—			—			1			—			1
Amphitheater		5,000 - 30,000		10			32			5			14			—			61
Arena		5,000 - 20,000		1			5			2			2			—			10
Theater		1,000 - 6,500		7			44			9			20			2			82
Club		Less than 1,000		3			22			1			13			1			40
House of Blues		1,000 - 2,000		2			9			—			—			—			11
Festival Site *		Varies		5			—			—			27			—			32
Total venues in operation				28			112			17			77			3			237
Venues currently under construction				—			7			—			—			—			7
Venues not currently in operation				1			2			—			—			—			3
Total venues in operation by location:
North America				19			88			13			59			3			182
International				9			24			4			18			—			55

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• Exclusive booking rights for festival sites includes multi-year agreements providing us the right to use public or private land for a defined period of time leading up to and continuing after the festival. We may enter into multiple agreements for a single festival site or use the same site for multiple festivals. We have aggregated the agreements for each festival site and reported them as one festival site.

Competition

Competition in the live entertainment industry is intense. We believe that we compete primarily on the basis of our ability to deliver quality music events, sell tickets and provide enhanced fan and artist experiences. We believe that our primary strengths include:

•	the quality of service delivered to our artists, fans, ticketing clients and corporate sponsors;

•	our track record and reputation in promoting and producing live music events and tours both domestically and internationally;

•	artist relationships;

•	our global footprint;

•	the quality of our ticketing software and services;

•	our ecommerce site and associated database;

•	our diverse distribution platform (venues);

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

•	our financial stability.

Although we believe that our products and services currently compete favorably with respect to such factors, we cannot provide any assurance that we can maintain our competitive position against current and potential competitors, especially those with significantly greater brand recognition, or greater financial, marketing, technical and other resources.

In the markets in which we promote music concerts, we face competition from other promoters and venue operators. 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. 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. 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.

In markets where we own or operate a venue, we compete with other venues to serve artists likely to perform in that general region. 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. 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.

Our main competitors at the local market level for sponsorships and advertising dollars include local sports teams, which often offer state-of-the-art venues, strong brand association and attractive local media packages, as well as festivals, theme parks and other local events. On the national level, our competitors include the major sports leagues that sell sponsorships combined with significant national media packages.

The ticketing services industry includes the sale of tickets primarily through online and mobile channels, but also through telephone and ticket outlets. As online and mobile ticket purchases increase, related ticketing costs generally decrease, which has made it easier for technology-based companies to offer primary ticketing services and standalone, automated ticketing systems that enable venues to perform their own ticketing services or utilize self-ticketing systems. In the online environment, we compete with other websites, online event sites and ticketing companies to provide event information, sell tickets and provide other online services such as fan clubs and artist websites.

We experience competition from other national, regional and local primary ticketing service providers to secure new venues and to reach fans for events. Resale, or secondary, ticketing services have created more aggressive buying of primary tickets whereby certain brokers are using automated internet “bot” technology to attempt to buy the best tickets when they go on sale, notwithstanding federal and state prohibitions. The internet allows fans and other ticket resellers to reach a vastly larger audience through the aggregation of inventory on resale websites and marketplaces, and provides consumers with more convenient access to tickets for a larger number and greater variety of events.

We also face significant and increasing competition from companies that sell self-ticketing systems, as well as from venues that choose to integrate self-ticketing systems into their existing operations or acquire primary ticketing service providers. Our competitors include primary ticketing companies such as Tickets.com, AXS, Paciolan, Inc., CTS Eventim AG, Eventbrite, eTix, Ticketfly and SeatGeek; secondary ticketing companies such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketNetwork and SeatGeek; and many others, including large technology and ecommerce companies that we understand have recently entered or are likely to enter these markets.

Government Regulations

We are subject to federal, state and local laws, both domestically and internationally, governing matters such as:

•	privacy and the protection of personal or sensitive information;

•	compliance with the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010 and similar regulations in other countries;

•	primary ticketing and ticket resale services;

•	construction, renovation and operation of our venues;

•	licensing, permitting and zoning, including noise ordinances;

•	human health, safety and sanitation requirements;

•	the service of food and alcoholic beverages;

•	working conditions, labor, minimum wage and hour, citizenship and employment laws;

•	compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”), the United Kingdom’s Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 (“DDA”) and similar regulations in other countries;

•	hazardous and non-hazardous waste and other environmental protection laws;

•	sales and other taxes and withholding of taxes;

•	marketing activities via the telephone and online; and

•	historic landmark rules.

We believe that we are materially in compliance with these laws. We are required to comply with federal, state and international laws regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, disclosure and protection of personally identifiable information and user data, an area that is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous jurisdictions around the world, including the European Union’s GDPR (as defined and discussed below in Item 1A.—Risk Factors).

We are required to comply with the laws of the countries in which we operate and also the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010 regarding anti-bribery regulations. These regulations make it illegal for us to pay, promise to pay or receive money or anything of value to, or from, any government or foreign public official for the purpose of directly or indirectly obtaining or retaining business. This ban on illegal payments and bribes also applies to agents or intermediaries who use funds for purposes prohibited by the statute.

From time to time, federal, state, local and international authorities and/or consumers commence investigations, inquiries or litigation with respect to our compliance with applicable consumer protection, advertising, unfair business practice, antitrust (and similar or related laws) and other laws, particularly as related to primary ticketing and ticket resale services.

The regulations relating to our food service operations in our venues are many and complex. A variety of regulations at various governmental levels relating to the handling, preparation and serving of food, the cleanliness of food production facilities and the hygiene of food-handling personnel are enforced primarily at the local public health department level.

We also must comply with applicable licensing laws, as well as state and local service laws, commonly called dram shop statutes. Dram shop statutes generally prohibit serving alcoholic beverages to certain persons such as an individual who is intoxicated or a minor. If we violate dram shop laws, we may be liable to third parties for the acts of the customer. Although we generally hire outside vendors to provide these services at our larger operated venues and regularly sponsor training programs designed to minimize the likelihood of such a situation, we cannot guarantee that intoxicated or minor customers will not be served or that liability for their acts will not be imposed on us.

We are also required to comply with the ADA, the DDA and certain state statutes and local ordinances that, among other things, require that places of public accommodation, including both existing and newly-constructed venues, be accessible to customers with disabilities. The ADA and the DDA require that venues be constructed to permit persons with disabilities full use of a live entertainment venue. The ADA and the DDA may also require that certain modifications be made to existing venues to make them accessible to customers and employees who are disabled. In order to comply with the ADA, the DDA and other similar ordinances, we may face substantial capital expenditures in the future.

From time to time, governmental bodies have proposed legislation that could have an effect on our business. For example, some legislatures have proposed laws in the past that would impose potential liability on us and other promoters and producers of live music events for entertainment taxes and for incidents that occur at our events, particularly relating to drugs and alcohol. Some jurisdictions have also proposed legislation that would restrict ticketing methods or mandate ticket inventory disclosure.

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 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.

Employees

As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately 9,500 full-time employees, including 6,200 in North America and 3,300 international employees, of which approximately 9,300 were employed in our operations departments and approximately 200 were employed in our corporate group.

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, 2018, we employed approximately 13,000 seasonal and

part-time employees and during peak seasonal periods, particularly in the summer months, we employed as many as 29,000 seasonal and part-time employees in 2018.

The stagehands at some of our venues and other employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements. Our union agreements typically have a term of three years and thus regularly expire and require negotiation in the course of our business. We believe that we have good relationships with our employees and other unionized labor involved in our events, and there have been no significant work stoppages in the past three years. Upon the expiration of any of our collective bargaining agreements, however, we may be unable to renegotiate on terms favorable to us, and our business operations at one or more of our facilities may be interrupted as a result of labor disputes or difficulties and delays in the process of renegotiating our collective bargaining agreements. In addition, our business operations at one or more of our facilities may also be interrupted as a result of labor disputes by outside unions attempting to unionize a venue even though we do not have unionized labor at that venue currently. A work stoppage at one or more of our owned or operated venues or at our promoted events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. We cannot predict the effect that a potential work stoppage will have on our results of operations.

Executive Officers

Set forth below are the names, ages and current positions of our executive officers and other significant employees as of February 21, 2019.

Name		Age		Position
Michael Rapino		53		President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Ron Bension		64		President–HOB Entertainment
Joe Berchtold		54		President
Brian Capo		52		Chief Accounting Officer
Arthur Fogel		65		Chairman–Global Music and President–Global Touring
John Hopmans		60		Executive Vice President–Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Finance
Amy Howe		46		President–Ticketmaster North America
John Reid		57		President–Europe Concerts
Alan Ridgeway		52		Chairman–Asia Pacific
Bob Roux		61		President–US Concerts
Michael Rowles		53		General Counsel and Secretary
Jared Smith		41		President–Ticketmaster
Russell Wallach		53		President–Sponsorship and Advertising
Kathy Willard		52		Chief Financial Officer
Mark Yovich		44		President–Ticketmaster International

Michael Rapino is our President and Chief Executive Officer and has served in this capacity since August 2005. He has also served on our board of directors since December 2005. Mr. 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. Mr. 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. Prior to that, Mr. Berchtold served as our Chief Operating Officer since joining us in April 2011.

Brian Capo is our Chief Accounting Officer and has served in this capacity since joining us in December 2007.

Arthur Fogel is the Chairman of our Global Music group and President of our Global Touring division and has served in these capacities since 2005. Mr. Fogel has worked for us or our predecessors since 1999.

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. Prior to that, Ms. Howe was most recently a partner at McKinsey & Company, after joining them in 1999.

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

Alan Ridgeway is Chairman of our Asia Pacific region and has served in this capacity since January 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Ridgeway served as President of our International and Emerging Markets division since November 2011. Mr. Ridgeway has worked for us or our predecessors since 2002.

Bob Roux is President of our US Concerts division and has served in this capacity since October 2010. Mr. Roux has worked for us or our predecessors since 1990.

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. Mr. Wallach has worked for us or our predecessors since 1996.

Kathy Willard is our Chief Financial Officer and has served in this capacity since September 2007. Ms. 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. Mr. Yovich has worked for us or our predecessors since 2000.

Available Information

We are required to file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. You may read and copy any materials we have filed with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. Our filings with the SEC are also available to the public through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

You can find more information about us online at our investor relations website located at www.investors.livenationentertainment.com. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports are available free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with the SEC. The information posted on or accessible through our website is not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.