The Details Of Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. (TKTM)’s Deal With The Devil
Posted by Timothy Sykes on Thu 1st of Jan, 2009 08:05:54 AM
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My one great mistake in my finance life was to invest in my friend’s father’s company, Cygnus eTransactions because they had incredible ticketing software and Ticketmaster was Ticketmaster…
…I mean, it seems common knowledge that Ticketmaster is waaaaay behind in technology, their fees are ridiculous and yet they’re still somehow the market leader for event ticketing, call it the ultimate testimonial to marketshare and barriers to entry.
Well, my investment in that little startup didn’t turn out so well, as you might’ve read in my blog post about Cygnus being the stock that killed my hedge fund…and for the past few months, my bitterness abated as I ignored the clumsiness of the Ticketmaster ticket ordering process in favor of Stubhub, a site that seemed to fit my needs perfectly for all sorts of tickets for good seats…Broadway, the Giants, the Knicks, they have it all…
…and while Stubhub has absurd %-based fees–which is even worse–I don’t mind paying it because the site is great, technology rocks and I really only use it for hard-to-come-by premium seating.
But the other day I spent some time getting to know StockTwits employee #3 Phil Pearlman, and after we chatted over lunch for a while…we headed over to Macy’s to the Ticketmaster ticket pickup window so Phil could grab his tickets for the Tony Bennett show him and his wife were going to see later that night.
Normally, our meeting would’ve ended after lunch, but when he uttered the word ‘Ticketmaster’, I knew I must accompany him and see if their ticket grabbing process was really as bad and outdated as it had been a few years ago which helped inspire my investment in CYGT.
Fulfilling all my expectations and more, Ticketmaster came through with their typical incompetence…
First we had to dig through Midtown Manhattan’s Macy’s just to find the ticket window…after asking four employees, we had a general direction in which to walk but no clear path and definitely no signs…
After running into the fast-becoming ubiquitous ads of my buddy Garrett–who is now the poster boy for Calvin Klein (weird, I know, but he’s now like a real-life Zoolander), 10 minutes later, we finally found the place to pickup Phil’s tickets, but alas, it was also the customer service line and poor people galore had items they could no longer afford to return….
30 minutes later, I picked out a nice little present for my girlfriend and Phil was still in line. He’d printed out–actually written on a napkin–the ten digit or so code Ticketmaster needed, but the MS-Dos running ticketing computer–seriously, it was ghettttto–couldn’t read his credit card–the Macy’s employee even tried swiping it with a plastic bag–and he was on chatting angrily on the phone with some Ticketmaster support flunkie.
While we were standing there, a kind elderly woman approached us and gave us a lecture on why we should be good Christians and not drink too much at the holidays (even though we’re both blatant Jews)…as priceless as her speech was–and she’s right, don’t drink and trade guys–Phil came up empty and was forced to pick up the tickets by his home outside NYC…
In a just world, this blog post would never have to be written. In a just world, Ticketmaster would suffer for all their sins, go out of business and their research and development team would serve consecutive life sentences for all the damage they’ve inflicted upon millions of unsatisfied customers…and people would be able to get their tickets with ease.
Unfortunately, Ticketmaster signed a multi-year deal with Satan, who gets 50% of their yearly fees (that’s why the fees are so high, they don’t want to mess with Satan, he’ll take their monopoly away!) granted them worldwide domination for years to come…
The only good news is that if you correctly short sell their stock, you can get a bit of retribution…
But when I shorted 2000 shares the other day at $6.08, Satan stepped in and created a little short squeeze before the market close (it’s good to have powerful business partners)–I covered at $6.23 for a perfectly acceptable $333 loss (I’m not gonna be right 100% of the time, especially when going up against Satan!)
The good news is that some TIMalert subscribers have actually learned to think for themselves and enter at different times over the next 1-2 days after the alert–and can profit nicely:
Shorted TKTM on spike, grabbed $340 this morn.
-Vestor
…and those who didn’t have learned to take losses quickly, which is the best lesson I can ever teach:
and covered TKTM at 6.32 for (317)
-cswiger
no worries, my stop was tighter than yours so i got out for $90 loss
-BTB
yes, 60 buck loss on this one…didn’t like direction
-sebbid
lost $500. I’ll take it.
-Reaper
lost 280 on that great short squeeze.
-cash
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