AEG Live Deal Off Table?

A deal to give Cablevision Systems and Ticketmaster a 49 percent stake in AEG Live is believed to have hit the rocks, with AEG and Cablevision reportedly at loggerheads over issues of control and strategy, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The two companies, headed up by supermoguls Philip Anschutz and Jim Dolan, called off negotiations in early March, according to sources the Journal reported as "familiar with the matter."

It’s not clear where that leaves Ticketmaster, which is in the process of being spun off by parent IAC/InterActiveCorp. Theoretically, TM could still pursue an investment in AEG Live even if Cablevision bails out. One source told the Journal that such an agreement was unlikely at the moment, but could be revived later.

The much-rumored but never confirmed proposal entails Cablevision buying 34 percent and Ticketmaster 15 percent of AEG Live. The investment could infuse as much as $200 million into the concert promoter and peg the total value of the company at $350 million to $400 million, according to the paper.

Representatives for the three companies have declined to comment.

Word of the purported deal surfaced in late February. Such a deal would alter the playing field in the concert promotion business, giving AEG Live serious leverage to compete with Live Nation, particularly with spurned LN partner Ticketmaster on board.

In addition, Cablevision’s Madison Square Garden and associated companies, as well as the Fuse TV cable companies, would certainly bring a little extra thunder to AEG Live.