Ticketmaster Buys UK Ticketer Get Me In

Hot on the heels of its planned acquisition of secondary ticket reseller TicketsNow, Ticketmaster is continuing its aggressive charge into the secondary ticketing market by announcing late Monday that it was buying British secondary ticket reseller Get Me In. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The move will position Ticketmaster as a major player in the burgeoning European secondary ticket market and place it in direct competition with viagogo.com, the secondary ticket reseller founded by StubHub! co-founder Eric Baker.

In addition, the move also gives Ticketmaster another outlet to resell tickets globally, and the company could potentially funnel tickets directly through Get Me In, and TicketsNow, to consumers at higher prices than face value, a chief complaint of ticket brokers who are beginning to align in opposition to Ticketmaster’s proposed purchase. The TicketsNow deal must receive federal regulatory approval in order to close, and UK officials may also need to sign off on the Get Me In merger.

“GET ME IN! is one of the most popular resale websites in Europe,” Andrew Blachman, Chief Executive of the nearly five-year-old Get Me In, said in prepared statement. He is expected to remain in his position following the acqusisition. “Combining with Ticketmaster will enable us to extend our services to a wider base and provide even higher levels of service and security to fans of live entertainment.”

According to Ticketmaster officials, the company will look at ways to merge Get Me In’s offerings with Ticketmaster’s TicketExchange program, which currently resells tickets but has struggled compared to livelier competitors, such as StubHub! and TicketsNow until the planned acquisition. The UK and European secondary markets are more tightly regulated than their larger U.S. counterpart, and most of the sports resale component focuses on football (soccer), but Get Me In has concentrated on, and built a successful business in, the concert and live music entity.

”We believe that the best we can do for our consumers, clients and the UK live entertainment ticketing industry is to actively engage the exchange and resale sector of the market,” Chris Edmonds, Managing Director of Ticketmaster UK, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with GET ME IN! to provide consumers with the highest levels of choice, protection and service and to keep the value of a ticket as much as possible where it belongs, within the live entertainment industry.”