Live Nation, UMG Team Up on Management, Ticketmaster

IRVING & LUCIAN: The 50/50 joint venture between Live Nation Entertainment and UMG for the latter company’s management assets, picked up four years ago with Universal’s acquisition of Sanctuary, further beefs up Irving Azoff’s Front Line stable of veteran managers, bringing in Carl Stubner, Bill Curbishley and several others. (Ron Laffitte has also joined Front Line in an unrelated move.) When Lucian Grainge engineered the Sanctuary deal in 2007 during his tenure as head of UMG International, one of his primary targets was Bravado, its merchandising company. Since that time, Grainge has helped build Bravado by bringing in a number of high-profile acts, whereas the fortunes of Sanctuary’s management company have waned with the departures of a number of its big-name clients, including Elton John, Beyonce, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden and Morrissey. (9/22p)