The corporate credit rating on Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Live Nation Entertainment Inc. reflects Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' expectation that leverage will remain relatively high, but that operating performance will continue to be somewhat stable, because of to the company's degree of business diversity. We consider the company's business profile "fair" (based on our criteria), based on its strong position in the live entertainment and ticketing businesses, notwithstanding the low EBITDA margin of the concert business and increasing ticketing competition. We view the company's financial profile as "highly leveraged" because of its high debt to EBITDA and tightening covenants. Live Nation manages artists, books them in its network of owned and operated venues, and sells concert tickets, concessions, and high-margin
