U2 will receive an estimated $19 million worth of Live Nation shares as part of a 12-year deal the rock band signed with the concert promotion company earlier this year.
Los Angeles-based Live Nation on Thursday (Oct. 16) registered 1.56 million shares to U2 in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The agreement between U2 and Live Nation, announced in March, includes worldwide touring, merchandising, and the band’s U2.com Web site. The deal, however, is not a true 360-degree pact, as there is no publishing component and the band retains its relationship with Universal Music to release music.
U2 is in an elite class for touring, with its 2005-2007 Vertigo tour taking in close to $400 million, the second highest ever. So touring alone should generate more than a billion dollars in grosses over the course of the contract.
In addition to U2, Live Nation has also entered into multi-rights deals with Madonna, Jay-Z, Nickelback and Shakira.
U2’s first studio album since 2004’s “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” is due early next year. Bono and the Edge reportedly played a couple of new songs at a part last Thursday in Half Moon Bay, Calif., for the staff of Elevation Partners, an investment firm of which Bono is a founding partner.
