NZ Post and Ticketmaster Announce Agreement

New Zealand Post and Ticketmaster Announce Acquisition Agreement and Strategic Alliance

AUCKLAND, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

New Zealand Post and Ticketmaster, the world's leading ticketing company, today announced an agreement whereby Ticketmaster NZ Limited will acquire the Red Tickets brand and certain ticketing assets from New Zealand Post Limited and, through a separate agreement, New Zealand Post's PostShops will continue selling event tickets as part of Ticketmaster NZ Limited's broader ticketing distribution network throughout New Zealand.

The agreement reflects Ticketmaster's continued international expansion of technology and ticketing services and New Zealand Post's decision to look at alternative ticketing solutions rather than continue to operate a ticketing business independently.

New Zealand Post Group Manager of Enterprises, Stephen Henry, said in the end it was an easy decision for New Zealand Post to make.

"Over the past few years the ticketing business has become increasingly more about technology and event management rather than simply just selling tickets. New Zealand Post reached a crossroads of whether to further invest in running a ticketing business, or to sell the Red Tickets assets and form a business relationship which would allow event tickets to continue to be sold through PostShops throughout the country."

Under the terms of the agreement, Ticketmaster NZ Limited will provide ticketing services for current events such as Wellington and Auckland Rugby Union fixtures, theatre and concert performances, family entertainment attractions and other events. Tickets to such events will be available for sale through PostShops and other Ticketmaster retail ticket centre locations as well as through Tickemaster's charge by phone network and web site ticketmaster.co.nz.

Phil Meggs, President, Ticketmaster Australasia said, "Red Tickets, over its three years of operation, has provided great service to both clients and consumers. We're excited about the acquisition and we look forward to providing New Zealand with our state of the art ticketing technology and services. Our new distribution agreement with New Zealand Post provides convenient access for New Zealanders to continue purchasing tickets through more than 300 PostShops and other Ticketmaster distribution channels."

About New Zealand Post New Zealand Post Limited is a State-Owned Enterprise, operating in a completely deregulated postal environment. New Zealand Post is recognised as providing one of the most efficient and inexpensive postal systems in the world. New Zealand Post's core business activities are letter communications, express and logistics, banking, financial transactions, as well as data processing and mail and stamp production. Almost 17,500 people work for New Zealand Post -- around one in every 100 working New Zealanders.

About Ticketmaster Ticketmaster is the world's leading ticketing company, providing ticket sales and distribution through www.ticketmaster.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet and international sites including www.ticketmaster.co.nz in New Zealand; approximately 3,300 retail Ticket Centre outlets; 19 worldwide telephone call centres; and a broad online and offline marketing network. Ticketmaster serves more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, museums and theatres, and sold 98 million tickets valued at US$5 billion in 2004. Ticketmaster is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI).

ENDS

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