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.”
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