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Ticketmaster Loses Its No. 2 Customer to Competitor Live Nation

this is from TKTM's SEC filing - Not sure why the market was taken by surprise by the announcement.....

"Securing the right to sell tickets depends, in substantial part, on the ability of our businesses to enter into, maintain and renew client contracts on favorable terms. Revenue attributable to our largest client, Live Nation (including its subsidiary, House of Blues), represented approximately 17% of our total revenue in 2007. This client relationship consists of four agreements, two with Live Nation (a worldwide agreement (other than England, Scotland and Wales) that expires on December 31, 2008, and an agreement covering England, Scotland and Wales that expires on December 31, 2009) and two with House of Blues (a U.S. agreement that expires on December 31, 2009, and a Canadian agreement that expires on March 1, 2010). Revenue attributable to the worldwide agreement and the agreement covering England, Scotland and Wales represented approximately 11% and 3%, respectively, of our total revenues in 2007. Each party has the right to terminate the agreement covering England, Scotland and Wales as of December 31, 2008, in which case Live Nation would be obligated to pay us a termination fee in an amount equal to 1.25 times the average of our annual net profits under the agreement for 2007 and 2008. We anticipate that none of these agreements will be renewed. In addition, Live Nation has publicly announced that it will launch its own ticketing business in 2009 and that it intends to ticket Live Nation events and compete with Ticketmaster for third party clients. "