Live Nation Settles With Michael Cohl – Does This Mean A Rolling Stones Tour?

Live Nation has amicably settled its legal dispute with former chairman Michael Cohl.  "We’ve had a long and fruitful history, collaborating with Michael Cohl," said Arthur Fogel, Chairman of Global Muisc and CEO of Global Touring. "We’re pleased that we’ve been able to resolve our differences, and can now get back to working together."

"Live Nation has been a valued partner through the years, and I’m glad that we’ve been able to put this behind us and move forward," Cohl added.

While details about the settlement, or how Cohl and Live Nation intend to "work together" in the future were not provided, one can't help but wonder if a Stones tour is now in the offing.

The legal dispute arose after Cohl resigned as Live Nation's chairman in 2008. According to Live Nation, in return for allowing Cohl to continue working with particular artists (namely The Rolling Stones), despite his non-compete clause in his contract with Live Nation, Cohl would make substantial payments to Live Nation but in 2010, Live Nation filed a lawsuit against Cohl, claiming that he owed Live Nation $5.5 million after having defaulted on these payments.

Cohl then filed a countersuit, claiming that he stopped making payments because Live Nation had defaulted on their end of the 2008 agreement when they informed Cohl they were bidding for a 2011 Rolling Stones tour and that he was contractually obligated to make a joint bid on the tour with them and had a duty to divulge details of his own negotiations with the band to Live Nation. Cohl maintained that none of this concurred with his understanding of the 2008 agreement.

The legal dispute seemed to cast a pall over the prospects of a widely-expected 2012 50th anniversary tour by the Rolling Stones, with the band publically expressing a disinterest in getting involved in the "spat" and subsequently releasing a statement that they did not plan to tour in 2012. Later, the band's frontman Mick Jagger noted to Rolling Stone magazine that the band had set their sights on 2013 for their anniversary tour and now, it appears as if that is much more likely.  – via CelebrityAccess