John Malone, Ticket Master?

-YOSH John Malone is is probably the most under rated when it comes to the power he holds in the media business. He has made other powerful media bigs like Rupert Murdoch run for cover. Now he is said to be interested in Barry Diller's TicketMaster.com. And why wouldn't he be? The site reportedly sold over $7 billion in tickets last year. However that number may drop when Live Nation, the biggest concert promoter, drops Ticketmaster.com in favor of it's own ticket sales system. Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei says his company has been unable to swing a deal for Home Shopping Network—which Liberty would like to merge with its QVC discount shopping business—because IAC has set the price too high. At the 35th annual UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York on Dec. 3, Maffei mused that Liberty may now focus on Ticketmaster, the dominant name in ticket sales. Maffei said Ticketmaster "has a great business" that would mesh well with Liberty's entertainment assets, which will expand substantially in the coming weeks if Malone's deal to buy the DirecTV (DTV) satellite service wins federal regulatory approval as expected. John Malone Eyes Ticketmaster [BW]