Live Nation to sell tickets for SMG

Live Nation to sell tickets for SMG

When Live Nation Inc. leaves Ticketmaster next year to launch its own ticketing service, it won't go alone. The concert promoter -- which was once Ticketmaster's largest client -- signed a multiyear agreement with Philadelphia-based SMG, a facilities operator that runs 216 venues including 75 arenas and nine stadiums.

Live Nation says it expects to sell 25 million tickets to SMG venues over the course of the deal, beginning in late 2009, which analysts estimate could account for about $50 million in revenues for the Beverly Hills-based concert promoter.

DRUGS

Rituxan user dies of brain infection

Federal regulators said one case of a deadly brain infection has been reported in a patient taking Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc.'s popular arthritis and cancer drug Rituxan.

The Food and Drug Administration said the woman died of the rare viral infection more than a year and a half after discontinuing the drug, which Genentech and Biogen Idec co-market in the U.S.

The FDA said the case was the first reported in a patient taking the drug for arthritis.

Bristol-Myers won't raise bid

Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. reiterated its $60-a-share offer for ImClone Systems Inc., avoiding a bidding war for now, even though the New York biotechnology company has said a secret suitor is offering $10 a share more.

Bristol-Myers, which has a partnership with ImClone to sell its only product, the cancer drug Erbitux, also said it wouldn't agree to any changes in its long-term marketing rights for the blockbuster drug. Bristol-Myers, also based in New York, gets 61% of Erbitux's U.S. and Canadian sales, or roughly one-quarter of global sales, which could approach $2 billion this year.

COURTS

Lawsuit involving AIG, Starr settled

Attorneys for a Louisiana pension fund have reached a $115-million settlement in a shareholder lawsuit against former executives of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

The settlement was reached just days before a trial was to begin in Delaware in the case that challenged commissions that had been paid to C.V. Starr & Co. by the New York-based insurer. C.V. Starr is a privately held affiliate controlled by former AIG Chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg and three other AIG directors.