Live Nation's Madonna bet

Call Wall Street reaction underwhelming. Shares of the Bev Hills concert promoter - and now record company - fell 3.7 percent today, as analysts were at best lukewarm in their instant analyses of Madonna leaving Warner to join Live Nation in a $120 million deal. LN might be trying just a bit too hard to be a soup-to-nuts music powerhouse (Madonna still does pretty well on the concert front, but her albums haven't been blockbusters for quite a while). Maybe it's a blessing in disguise for Warner. Here's David Gaffen's take in Marketbeat:

Perhaps more interesting is what the deal means for the record industry, as CD sales decline due to the popularity of digital downloading. Live Nation may have a hard time making a profit on this deal due to the big advances Madonna will be getting, but the sheer volume of related merchandise could make up for it. The risk for the company, then, is understandable, as the concert promoter lost money in 2005 and 2006, and made about $10 million in profit for the June 2007 quarter — as concert promoters make just 10% of gross revenue from tours (the lion’s share goes to the artist).