Liberty's Malone Steps Down from DirecTV Board
Reduction in voting interest expected to satisfy FCC condition on Liberty Media stake in satellite TV provider
By Claire Atkinson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/6/2010 9:03:16 PM
Satellite TV provider DirecTV said April 6 that Liberty Media Chairman John Malone is resigning from its board. According to a statement, Malone is also reducing his 24.3% voting interest in the company to a 3% stake and is exchanging 21.8 million Class B shares, for 26 million Class A shares. The move effectively eliminates the Class B shares.
The change is expected to satisfy an FCC condition about Liberty Media's acquisition of a stake in DirecTV in February 2008. The FCC order came as a result of the overlapping interests of both Liberty and DirecTV in Puerto Rico.
According to a DirecTV statement issued after the market close Tuesday, the FCC had advised the company that it was not sufficient to have those overlapping assets remain in trust for an indefinite period.
"It is also expected that Greg Maffei, president and CEO of Liberty Global, and Paul Gould, also a member of the board of directors of Liberty Global, will also resign from the board of directors of DirecTV at the closing of the transaction," read the corporate statement.
Second to Comcast, DirecTV is the biggest provider of pay-TV services in the U.S., serving 18.5 million people. In the fourth quarter, DirecTV posted a net loss of $32 million compared with a profit of $332 million in the year ago period.
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