Groupon, Live Nation to Launch New Ticketing Deals Site

Top online group buying site Groupon tied up with Live Nation Inc to launch a new online ticketing deals web site that will allow customers buy tickets to concerts, theatres and other live events at discounted prices.

Live Nation Entertainment, which was created by the combination of concert promoter Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment, produces over 20,000 shows annually for more than 2,000 artists and bands like Rihanna and Def Leppard.

The new site, GrouponLive, timed to launch with the summer concert season, will act as a local resource for Live Nation events and clients of its ticketing business, Ticketmaster, the companies said in a statement.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

"Our success is based on selling tickets and filling seats and GrouponLive gives us another platform to achieve this," Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino said.

Groupon, whose expected IPO could value the company at about $15-$20 billion, is a leader in the hot and crowded online daily deals market.

The company has grown to about 50 million users from 3 million across 500 cities in 40 countries over the course of 2010.

Live Nation shares had closed at $10.75 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange