LN Shakes Things Up

Live Nation’s board of directors appears to be undergoing a bit of a shakeup, with the sudden resignations of Mark P. Mays and Timothy Sullivan from its board of directors effective February 4th.  The announcement follows that of Michael Cohl’s ascendancy to the chairmanship, replacing Randall P. Mays, who remains a member of the board of directors, a Live Nation spokesman told Pollstar.

Replacements for Mays and Sullivan on the board were not immediately announced. Live Nation gave notice February 3rd of a call for a special meeting in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing related to a sale of shares, but presumably could also address the board vacancies.

But the changes seem to signal a shift at Live Nation. Mark and Randall Mays, along with their father, Lowry – who also remains on the LN board – are members of the founding family of the Clear Channel Communications media empire.

Live Nation was spun off from Clear Channel in December 2005, but the Mays family members all took seats on the LN boards. Clear Channel Communications is in the process of being taken private in a sale to Thomas H. Lee and Bain Partners private equity firms.

Sullivan has also served as a director of LN since the spinoff. He is also president and CEO of The Generations Network and previously was CEO of Match.com and a VP for Ticketmaster / Citysearch, according to Forbes.

Investors have been responding favorably to several recent actions by Live Nation if stock price is any indicator. After falling to a 52-week low of $9.26 per share in recent weeks, stocks have rebounded to a $11.54 as the markets opened February 5th.  Stock was at $11.40 at press time.