Allen Buys Big Stake In Ticketmaster

Paul Allen, Seattle investor and co-founder of Microsoft, is taking another run toward the data highway by acquiring a majority interest in Ticketmaster Holdings Group Ltd., the parent company of Ticketmaster Corp.

Terms of the acquisition, which is effective today, were not announced.

Ticketmaster is the world's leading computerized ticketing service, selling more than 52 million tickets annually. It serves more than 2,500 clients in 40 states, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Allen will become chairman of the holding company. Fredric Rosen will continue as president and chief executive officer. Headquarters will remain in Los Agneles.

"Ticketmaster is an important vehicle for the informational and technological highway fo the future," Allen said. "On both a personal and professional level, my interests in sports, music and the fine arts parallel Ticketmaster's core business."

Allen said Ticketmaster's consumer base and its reputation for being on the cutting edge of entertainment and marketing make it a key part of his plans for the future.

In an interview last month, Allen said he believes the television of the future will let people get together in teleconferences and choose their own programming. Viewers could watch sports or political events as they happen, or even learn guitar from a teacher linked to the high-tech TV.

Ticketmaster fits right in. Rather than standing in line or calling by phone, Allen reasons, people ought to be able to order tickets by selecting options on a computer or TV screen.

Ticketmaster's ticket sales already are computerized, and adapting the system to an online network should not prove difficult, he said.

Allen also owns the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and recently has been building a group of companies chartered with exploiting the potential of multimedia digital communications. These include Asymetrix Corp., a software company, and Starwave Corp., a multimedia-marketing company, both of Bellevue; and Interval Research of Palo Alto.

Allen holds investments in Egghead Corp.; America Online, which with Tribune Co. and Tickemaster wants to sell tickets in Chicago and Florida on personal computers; and multiple technology companies.