FTC OK With Starz Spin-Off

Has no competition issue with internal restructuring

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/8/2013 10:19:05 AM

The Federal Trade Commission has no problem with Liberty Media's spinoff of its Starz premium movie channel into a separate stock.

That came in an early termination notice from the FTC on Tuesday. That means it is ending its competition review of the restructuring early because it has no competitive issues with the internal restructuring of the company.

Liberty last summer announced it would spin off Starz into a separate, publicly traded company.

Actually, Starz is the technical "spinner," with the other assets, see below, spun off into Liberty Media Spinco, which will be renamed Liberty Media Corp., while the existing Liberty Media becomes Starz LLC.

The company was looking to create a pure play media company built on Starz and get better value from Wall Street for that and its other businesses by "reducing the complexity currently involved in understanding the disparate businesses, assets and liabilities."

Those other assets include Atlanta National League Baseball Club, Inc. and TruePosition, Inc., equity stakes in Sirius XM Radio and Live Nation Entertainment, and minority investments in Barnes & Noble, Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, Viacom and Sprint Nextel Corp.

Liberty has set Jan. 11 as the date of the spin-off.