MovieTickets.com Swipes Fandango; Bad for Hollywood Media Investors? (HOLL)

MovieTickets.com, 26% owned by Hollywood Media (ticker: HOLL), announced that it sold more advanced tickets online for the new Harry Potter movie than for the most recent StarWars Movie. In a not-too-subtle swipe at competitor Fandango, the press release stated:

During a measurement taken during peak weekend purchase hours, MovieTickets.com’s pages were loading at one second versus the nearest competitor at 56 seconds. Unlike the other online movie ticketing site, MovieTickets.com remained 100% stable and accessible during this period of tremendous traffic volume and simultaneous ticketing transactions.

Quick comment: MovieTickets.com and Fandango jointly own the online movie ticketing market. In the past, Hollywood Media has expressed interest in merging the two companies, which would be a strong positive for investors as the brand and cost synergies should be considerable. But this press release suggests that the relationship between the two parties isn't too hot, and that no deal is on the horizon. That's more significant than the positive news about Harry Potter ticker sales and MovieTickets.com's site performance. Full disclosure: long HOLL at time of writing.