Launch Media to Buy Concert Tour

Launch Media, a Santa Monica firm that runs a music-oriented Web site and produces a CD-ROM music magazine, said it would buy a live summer concert series called the Warped Tour for an undisclosed sum. An estimated 400,000 people attended last summer’s Warped Tour shows in about three dozen cities. Last year’s Warped Tour turned a profit on about $6.5 million in revenue, said Launch Chief Executive David Goldberg. The addition of the Warped Tour to Launch’s portfolio will enable the 6-year-old company to offer more attractive sponsorship opportunities to advertisers, Goldberg said. Launch also plans to bolster the Warpedtour.com Web site. Launch, which has 3.5 million registered users, lost $37.5 million last year on revenue of $16.6 million. Its shares closed at $7.38, down 75 cents, in Nasdaq trading.