🎟️ Ticketmaster’s split-up suit

Better than revenge… Yesterday, the US Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation, aiming to break up the country's largest concert promoter. The DOJ launched an investigation into the concert colossus in 2022, and the probe heated up in November of that year when Ticketmaster crashed after millions of Swifties tried to snag Eras Tour tix. Now the DOJ has accused Live Nation of running an illegal live-events monopoly.

• The DOJ says: Ticketmaster controls at least 80% of primary ticket sales at major concert venues and uses its dominance to lock out rivals and drive up ticket prices with obscure fees (the DOJ calls it “the Ticketmaster tax”).

• Live Nation says: The DOJ's monopoly allegations are “absurd” and don’t take into account “24/7 scalpers” and fans’ willingness to pay way over primary prices.

• FYI: Last year, stars like Beyoncé and T. Swift helped drive Live Nation’s record attendance and ticket sales, pushing its revenue up 36% to nearly $23B.

Live domination… The US gov’t approved the Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger in 2010, on the condition that it licensed its ticket software to rivals and didn’t retaliate against venues that didn’t use Ticketmaster. But in 2019 the DOJ said it had violated those terms by pressuring venues to use Ticketmaster as a condition for using Live Nation performers. Under pressure from the Biden admin, last year Live Nation and SeatGeek said they would start showing customers the full price of shows before checkout. ICYMI: concert ticket fees can often add up to over 30% of the total order.

Adding to the Canva(s)…. Sydney-based startup Canva racked up 185M monthly users by making graphic design accessible to non-design pros. You might’ve used its free version to create Insta carousels or quick slide decks. Snacks was on the ground at the Canva Create event yesterday, where the privately held company showed how it’s expanding beyond its DIY creator roots with AI-infused products for corporations.

• Meet Canva Enterprise: Canva’s workplace tools aren’t just for making external comms (like ads and social posts) but for internal work too (like onboarding modules, trainings, and brainstorm boards).

• Canva’s pitching it as an all-in-one hub for teams like sales, creative, and HR. Brand templates let team members create and collab on content like sales-pitch decks. Early users at Workday and Expedia said their teams have saved thousands of hours.

• AI magic: Building off its AI design tools, Canva added genAI enterprise features like a tool that can churn out copy in the brand’s voice and a video editor that can remove backgrounds and clean up sound.

• Risky business: Canva’s moved fast to stay ahead of AI, launching integrations with partners like OpenAI, but there’s still a risk of bigger tools squeezing it out or making it less relevant.

An enterprising endeavor… Canva already expanded beyond amateur designers to pros with its acquisition of Adobe competitor Affinity last month. Now it’s not just coming for Adobe, but for Google, Microsoft, and other makers of workplace tools. With Enterprise, employees at big companies can make Google Docs-style suggestions in Canva docs. Canva’s chief marketing officer, Zach Kitschke, told Snacks that the top reason people use Canva is for presentations and that many already use individual accounts to support their daily work.

• There’s a reason to go after corporate: Canva’s revenue from orgs grew nearly 50% last year, and the company reportedly expects it to grow another 60% this year — nearly 20% faster than individual account sales.