Liberty Media Boosts DirecTV Stake to 48%

John Malone-Led Company Shifting Strategy to Convert Investments Into Operating Businesses

By Robert Marich -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/4/2008 12:28:00 PM

John Malone-led Liberty Media took an interim step toward making minority-owned DirecTV into a consolidated business someday.

Liberty raised its stake in satellite-TV platform DirecTV to 48% Thursday. In February, Liberty became a DirecTV shareholder when took a 41% stake from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. as part of a complex transaction.

Wall Street has been cool to Liberty’s past strategy of aggregating sliver minority investments in various cable-TV and media businesses. In 2006, Liberty shifted strategy to convert its investments to operating businesses.

According to DirecTV’s charter, a shareholder passing the 50% equity threshold is required to make a bid for all of DirecTV’s stock.

Talkback

We would love your feedback!

Post a comment

» View All Talkback Threads

Related Content

• Topics
• Author

Liberty Media’s 41% DirecTV Stake: Up or Down?

03/13/2008

DirecTV to Carey On for Three More Years

08/09/2007

ACA Urges FCC Not to Remove DirecTV Conditions from News Corp.

04/04/2008

Liberty with Content for All: Q&A with Greg Maffei

11/10/2007

Liberty Media To Merge DirecTV With Some Media Assets

05/04/2009

Also by this author

• Hot Market for Business Channels

• Billionaire Buffett Gives GE Seal of Approval

• LIN-Time Warner Cable Retrans Talks Hit Crunch Time

• Warner, CBS, Hulu, E! Supply Web Videos to Slide

• Optimedia Ranks Olympics Above Super Bowl

Also by Robert Marich

Product Wire

• Resource Center
• Browse Categories
• Browse Companies

Featured Company

• Grab Networks

  

  Created from the merger between Anystream and Voxant Media, Grab Networks offers a comprehensive video operating system and syndication network for profitably publishing video anywhere on the Internet. The system automatically manages, transcodes... more

• Digital Rapids

  

  Digital Rapids is the leading provider of professional hardware and software tools, technology and expertise for bringing video to wider audiences and new viewing platforms. Continuing to set new standards in quality, productivity and versatility... more

• Parks Associates

  

  Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates creates research capital for companies ranging from... more

• TrylonSMR

  

  At Trylon SMR, we are dedicated Public Relations professionals solely serving clients in the media, technology, telecommunications, and related industries. We understand the specialized types of audiences our clients need to reach and the best... more

• Akamai

  

  Akamai provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by the world's most... more

---

Most Recent Resources

• Robust Encoding, Transcoding and Streaming Systems – Critical...
• Simultaneous Multi-Format Encoding for Efficient Content Repurposing
• Broadband Services: The Turning Point
• Digital Lifestyles and the Service Provider
• IPTV and the Digital Home