Irving Azoff to Leave Live Nation

Irving Azoff, the executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, the concert and ticket giant, is leaving the company, Live Nation announced on Monday.

As part of his exit, Liberty Media, already one of Live Nation's largest shareholders, will buy 1.7 million of Mr. Azoff's shares, giving Liberty a 26.4 percent stake in Live Nation. According to recently filed corporate disclosure documents, Mr. Azoff controlled about 2.6 million shares in Live Nation, either directly or through a family trust.

Mr. Azoff, 65, has been one of the most powerful executives and artist managers in music for four decades, and Live Nation has been only his most recent endeavor. Along with Michael Rapino, who remains the company's chief executive, Mr. Azoff helped organize the merger in early 2010 of Live Nation - then largely a concert promotions company - and Ticketmaster, which also included Mr. Azoff's Front Line management business.

Live Nation will continue to own Front L ine, but Mr. Azoff will take some of his longtime management clients with him, including the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Van Halen and Steely Dan. Mr. Azoff said that leaving would relieve him of what he described as burdensome corporate duties, and let him work again in his preferred mode as an entrepreneur.

“It's no secret that I haven't been a fan of public companies for some time,” Mr. Azoff said by phone from Mexico, where he was spending the holidays. “I looked at my calendar for the beginning of next year and I was able to clear 90 days for things that went into dealing with a public company, which I can now devote to productive work.”

He cited “taxes and estate planning” as the reasons for leaving on the last day of the year.

Live Nation announced Mr. Azoff's departure after the market closed on Monday, but news of it was first reported by Bloomberg News before the end of the trading day. Live Nation's stock closed at $9.31, up about 3.7 percent for the day.

Live Nation did not announce who would be taking over as chairman in Mr. Azoff's absence.

Liberty, in addition to Live Nation, also has a major stake in Sirius XM Radio, and has spent the last several months in the process of taking that company over. But when asked whether he might take over from the recently departed Mel Karmazin as chief executive of Sirius, Mr. Azoff scoffed.

“I'm never going to work for a public company again,” he said. “Any public company.”

Tribune Co. Emerges From Bankruptcy

 
After four years, the Tribune Company, whose holdings include The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune along with nearly two dozen television stations and other media assets, has emerged from bankruptcy protection, the company announced Monday.

The company's reorganization plan was approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware in July and had awaited final approvals from the Federal Communications Commission, which it received in November.
 
The announcement marks the end of a prolonged process for a company whose assets have been tied up in court proceedings while the media industry has undergone a major transformation to digital. In a letter to employees, Eddy Hartenstein, the company's chief executive, acknowledged that the past four years “have been a challengi ng period.”
 
“You have been resilient, dedicated to serving the company, our customers and your fellow employees,” he told the staff. ”You are what sets Tribune apart from our competitors.”
 
The company also announced a seven-member board. The directors include Mr. Hartenstein along with Peter Liguori, a former chief operating officer of Discovery Communications, who is expected to be named chief executive. Bruce Karsh, a founder of Oaktree Capital Management, which is a major shareholder in the company, also sits on the board, as well as Ross Levinsohn, the former interim chief at Yahoo. The company said it expected to resolve details about board members' responsibilities at its first meeting in the next few weeks.
 
The company is emerging from bankruptcy protection with a $300 million loan to finance what the company described as its “ongoing operations” as well as a $1.1 billion loan to fund payments for its reorgan ization.
 
The end of the bankruptcy opens the company's assets up to potential sale. Rupert Murdoch and David Geffen are among those who have expressed interest in buying some of Tribune's newspapers.