Briefly in the news

A Costa Mesa-based ticketing company that competed with the giants of the

industry announced Wednesday that it will cease business and turn over

its accounts to Ticketmaster, the biggest of its rivals.

The president of ETM Entertainment Network Inc., Peter Schniedermeier,

said the company had simply run out of money.

“It’s an expensive business to be in,” Schniedermeier said. “There’s a

lot of infrastructure costs.”

ETM’s clients, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Sports

Arena, will be transferred to Ticketmaster, the USA Networks company that

dominates the ticketing industry.

In addition to the high cost of doing business in the industry,

Schniedermeier cited a $15-million lawsuit in 1999 as a factor in the

company’s financial hard times.

A former employee successfully sued the company for what he considered to

be misappropriation of ticketing-related technology that he had

developed. Schniedermeier said the size of the award was a blow to the

company.

“That pretty much took the wind out of the corporate sails,” he said. “It

was tough to recover from that.”