Apparently the Live Nation shopping spree is nowhere near over. Today the company acquired majority stake in TRUNK LTD, a top merchandise company. TRUNK has exclusive licenses with a number of superstar acts including Aerosmith, The Beatles, Blondie, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd,The Grateful Dead, and The Doors to name a few. Additionally TRUNK LTD's CEO Brad Beckerman has been named President and Chief Creative Officer of Merchandising at Live Nation. This adds a whole new division to Live Nation, a company which is already a global leader in venue management and event promotion. The company is also making strides in digital content distribution. Most recently, the company purchased the House of Blues chain of clubs.
"Live Nation and TRUNK LTD share the same core consumer. Ourpartnership gives both of our companies the ability to enhance each other'sbrand," said Mr. Beckerman. "Music is the language of emotion; togetherLive Nation and TRUNK LTD will further enhance the emotional connectionbetween the artist and fan by extending the live experience beyond the show."
I'm still not entirely certain how merch fits into the grand scheme of things. I thought the focus was supposed to be getting butts into seats, but I guess that remains to be seen. I'm thinking this might be placed under brand identity; a rebranding of TRUNK and HOB could help to distinguish Live Nation as a brand and distance themselves from Clear Channel OR alternatively Live Nation might be trying to associate themselves with more popular brands towards the same goal of disassociating their name from CC . Then again with their exclusive deal to record live shows and make them available for sale to the public, I suppose they could just go ahead and open rock memorabilia shops.
Hmm, well I guess we'll all heare more about the plans for TRUNK in the forthcoming earnings call.
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