Clear Channel to spin off concert biz: live-show division will exist as separate, publicly traded company.(TOURING)

Billboard, May, 2005 by Waddell, Ray

Can Clear Channel Entertainment stand on its own two feet?

The touring industry will soon find out, now that Clear Channel Communications has announced that it will spin off CCE, the live-concert division the radio giant purchased in 2000 for $4.5 billion from SFX (billboard.biz, April 29).

After the spinoff, targeted for completion by year's end, CCE will be a separate, publicly traded company.

The move sent shockwaves through the concert industry. "Based on what they paid, everyone knew that [CCC] bought the Brooklyn Bridge and it was just a matter of time before they figured it out," observes independent promoter Seth Hurwitz of I.M.P. in Washington, D.C.

CCC absorbed much of the hit for purchasing the apparently overvalued...

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