 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Liberty Live Group: Nasdaq: LLYVA (Series A) OTCQB: LLYVB (Series B) Nasdaq: LLYVK (Series C) Russell 1000 components (LLYVA, LLYVK) Formula One Group: Nasdaq: FWONA (Series A) OTCQB: FWONB (Series B) Nasdaq: FWONK (Series C) Russell 1000 components (FWONA, FWONK) | |
| ISIN | US0477261046 US0477263026 US5312298137 US5312295083 US5312297899 US5312297972 US5312298707 US5312298541 US5312297717 US5312297550 |
| Industry | Mass media |
| Predecessor | Tele-Communications Inc. |
| Founded | 1991; 34 years ago (1991) |
| Founder | John C. Malone |
| Headquarters | , United States[a] |
Area served | Global |
Key people |
|
| Products | |
| Revenue |  US$8.696 billion (2021)[1] |
| US$1.977 billion (2021)[2] | |
| US$744 million (2021)[3] | |
| Total assets | US$44.351 billion (2021)[4] |
| Total equity |  US$18.262 billion (2021)[5] |
| Divisions | List of divisions |
| Subsidiaries | Formula One Group |
| Website | libertymedia |
Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to asLiberty Media or justLiberty) is an Americanmass media company founded byJohn C. Malone in 1991. The company has two divisions, represented by separatetracking stocks, reflecting its ownership stakes in theFormula One Group andLive Nation Entertainment. As of 2025,[update] Liberty Media owned three global motorsport businesses in the form ofFormula One,[6]MotoGP andWorld Superbikes.[7]
Liberty Media began in March 1991 as aspin-off ofTele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a U.S.cable-television group.[8][9] Peter Barton, hired by TCI's Malone, served as president until retiring in April 1997.[10] The company took over TCI assets considered to have little value, but Barton completed "a deal every ten days for six years" and made the company a big success.[citation needed] Liberty was merged back into TCI in the mid-1990s.[11][12] In 1995, Liberty Media acquired a 49% ownership stake in the Faith & Values Channel (which would later be known as theHallmark Channel), and took over operational control of the network, adding more secular and family-oriented programming. It was rebranded as the Odyssey Network in 1996.[13] On March 13, 1998, Liberty Media Group and TCI Group announced the merger ofEncore andSTARZ! into a single company—Encore Media Group, owned by Liberty. Encore was taking advantage of the growth ofdigital cable, while TCI, which had previously owned twenty percent of Encore, was more interested in traditional cable.[14][15]
AfterU.S. Department of Justice approval that required TCI to sell its 23.5% interest inSprint Corporation PSC,[16] TCI was acquired byAT&T on March 9, 1999, for approximately $48 billion.[17][18] Liberty Media merged with TCI Ventures Group LLC (TCIVA), TCI's telephone and Internet businesses, and the resulting company became part of AT&T, giving Liberty Media $5.5 billion to repurchase stock or buy other companies. AT&T bought the other TCI businesses—@Home Corp., National Digital Television Center and Western Tele-Communications Inc.—for $2.5 billion in cash. TCI chairman Malone, who became head of the new company, said buyers would not want all of TCI, but they would be interested in Liberty Media.[19] Malone wanted to start a finance unit similar toGE Capital, which could start new cable or Internet services. TCI had already planneddigital cableset-top boxes.[20]
On September 28, 1998, Liberty Media announced the formation of Liberty Interactive, a company which would take advantage of new technologies such as set-top boxes to developinteractive programming. The company would own 86% of TCI Music Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: TUNE/TUNEP). As of January 1, 1999,[update]E! Entertainment President and CEO Lee Masters would become the new company's CEO, and Bruce Ravenel would bechief technology officer.[21][22]
On June 2, 1999, Liberty announced that it would acquire the Associated Group for $2.8 billion.[23]
On September 10, 1999, Liberty Media Group renamed TCI Music to Liberty Digital Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: LDIG), with the new company trading on NASDAQ's National Market tier, after Liberty Media traded most of its Internet content, interactive television assets, and rights to provide AT&T's cable systems with interactive services, in addition to cash and notes valued at $150 million, for TCI Music stock. Masters, who became Liberty Digital's CEO, toldThe Wall Street Journal that the new company had a value of $1 billion, $650 million of that from the interactive unit of Liberty Media, which had also used the name Liberty Digital.[24] Liberty Digital lost $244 million with revenue of $66 million in 1999, thanks to investments in struggling Internet businesses homegrocer.com,drugstore.com,TiVo andiVillage. In August 2000, the company bought a 50% stake in theGame Show Network because of its interactive features.[22][25]
Another new company, Liberty Livewire, was formed fromTodd-AO and two other companies by Liberty Media, which provided audio and video post-production services. David Beddow of TCI became CEO.[26]
Liberty Media'sDiscovery Channel and QVC continued to do well, but the newer projects had problems and the company's stock price dropped by half. If AT&T agreed to spin off Liberty Media, new deals such as a possible News Corp. purchase ofDirecTV would be easier because AT&T would no longer require federal approval to complete such deals.[27] Liberty Media was spun off from AT&T on August 10, 2001.[28] This was one of three possible actions to ensure federal approval of AT&T's $54 billion acquisition ofMediaOne Group—the others were selling its 25.5% share ofTime Warner Entertainment and dropping 11.8 million cable customers.[29][30] Also in 2001, Liberty Media acquired the remainder of Liberty Digital and Liberty Satellite & Technology (formerly TCI Satellite). Both companies were independent spinoffs of TCI, though Liberty already owned 90% of both companies after the exchange for Sprint PCS stock. Being independent increased their asset values, but the stock prices of both dropped, negating any benefits.[31][32]
In June 2002, Liberty Media acquired Wink Communications, a maker of set-top boxes founded byBrian P. Dougherty (ofGEOS fame), for $100 million.[33] Liberty Media subsequently spent $5 billion on nineGerman regional cable networks. Apart from television distribution it held major interests in other groups. For example, it was the largest shareholder in News Corporation (though the foundingMurdoch family owns morevoting shares), and had a 4% stake in Time Warner. In June 2005, Liberty Media International combined with UnitedGlobalCom, creatingLiberty Global. In July 2005, the Discovery networks were spun off asDiscovery Holding Company.[34] In May 2006, Time Warner acquired Liberty Media's 50% stake inCourt TV, for $735 million.[35] On May 16, 2006, IDT sold its IDT Entertainment division to Liberty Media "for all of Liberty Media's interests in IDT, $186 million in cash and the assumption of existing indebtedness". IDT Entertainment's assets andStarz Entertainment Group's line of premium television channels combined to produce content for all distribution platforms, and IDT Entertainment was later renamed as Starz Media.[36][37]
Liberty negotiated an asset swap with News Corp. and Time Warner that would give it control ofDirecTV and theAtlanta Braves baseball team.[38] On February 12, 2007, a deal was completed with Time Warner, wherein Liberty would receive the Atlanta Braves and a group of craft magazines, along with $1 billion in cash, in exchange for 60 million shares of Time Warner stock (valued at $1.27 billion as of market close on February 12, 2007).[39] The deal was approved byMajor League Baseball and then completed on May 16, 2007.[40] On February 20, 2008, theFederal Communications Commission approved the exchange of 16.3% of News Corp. for 38.4% of DirecTV, an $11 billion deal that also gave Liberty sports networks inDenver,Pittsburgh andSeattle plus $550 million in cash.[41]
In April 2007, Liberty completed a purchase ofGreen Bay,Wisconsin, television stationWFRV-TV, andsatellite stationWJMN-TV inEscanaba,Michigan, which serves theMarquette, Michigan, market. The deal was part of a swap of 7.59 million shares of common stock inCBS, the stations' owner, that was held by Liberty Media; in exchange for the stock, CBS gave Liberty the stations and $170 million in cash.[42] Liberty announced plans in April 2011 to sell WFRV and WJMN toNexstar Broadcasting Group for $20 million.[43][44]
On September 3, 2008, Liberty Media decided to initiate the process of spinning off Liberty Entertainment to Liberty Media shareholders, leaving Malone with a majority ownership of the new company.[45] On May 4, 2009, The DirecTV Group Inc. said it would become a part of Liberty's entertainment unit, part of which would then be spun off as a separate company called DirecTV. The new company would also acquire Liberty's 100% interests in the threeFSN networks and its 50% interest inGSN. The rest of the unit would be traded as Liberty Starz. Liberty would increase its share of DirecTV from 48 to 54%, with Malone and his family owning 24%.[citation needed] On May 4, 2009, Liberty announced that it would split off Liberty Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary owning the three Fox Sports Net (FSN) channels (now Root Sports) acquired under the swap with News Corp. and Liberty's 65% interest inGSN, into a separate company that would merge with The DirecTV Group, reducing Liberty ownerJohn Malone's stake in DirecTV to 24%.[46] The merger was completed on November 19, 2009, with The DirecTV Group and Liberty Entertainment becoming subsidiaries of a new company named DirecTV.[47]
On February 17, 2009, Liberty announced that it would invest up to $530 million into the strugglingSirius XM Radio Inc., in a structured deal that would help the satellite radio provider avoid filing bankruptcy protection by meeting its obligations. The deal provided two board seats for Liberty Media, and provided cash for operations and development, with a maturity date of December 2012 for the loan.[48] On March 6, the two companies approved the second part of the deal, with Sirius XM getting $250 million immediately and Liberty receiving 12.5 million shares of preferred stock convertible into a 40% ownership of Sirius XMcommon stock.[49] On June 16, 2010, Malone exchanged hispreferred stock in DirecTV with equivalent amounts ofcommon stock, reducing his voting interest in the company from 24% to 3%, with Malone resigning as chairman and ending his managerial role at DirecTV.[50] That same year, Liberty Media announced that it would spin off Liberty Starz and Liberty Capital and keepLiberty Interactive. The spinoff took the name Liberty CapStarz, but renamed itself Liberty Media in 2011.[51][52] On theFortune 500 list 2011, Liberty Media was ranked 224, moving up from 2010 when they were ranked 227.[53]
In May 2011, Liberty announced it was in talks to buy theBarnes & Noble bookstore chain for $1.02 billion.[54] It eventually bought a 16% stake in the form of preferred stock in Barnes & Noble for $204 million.[55] On August 8, 2012, Liberty Media announced that it would spin off Starz into a separate publicly traded company.[56] The spin-off ofStarz Inc. was completed on January 15, 2013.[57] The company agreed in March 2013 to pay $2.62 billion for 27.3% ofCharter Communications from Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital Management and Crestview Partners with the provision that Liberty would not increase its stake past 35% until after January 2016 but no more than 39.99%.[58] By May 1, Liberty completed the transaction and placed four directors on Charter's board.[59]
In 2014, Liberty Media spun off TruePosition and its holdings inCharter Communications into a new company, Liberty Broadband.[60] In late 2016, Liberty Media agreed to buy theFormula One Group for US$4.4 billion (£3.3 billion).[61] The deal was finalized in January 2017 for a total of US$4.6 billion (£3.44 billion).[62]
On November 17, 2022, Liberty Media announced that it would split off the Atlanta Braves and its associated real estate development project, and create a new Liberty Live Group tracking stock to hold Liberty's 35% stake in Live Nation.[63] Liberty Media acquired ticket distributor and hospitality group QuintEvents for $313 million in September 2023.[64]
In December 2023, Liberty Media and SiriusXM agreed to create a new public company, "New SiriusXM", although it would continue to operate under the name and brand SiriusXM. The move was intended to created a simplified ownership structure and greater strategic flexibility.[65] The spin-off was completed on September 9, 2024.[66]
On April 1, 2024, Liberty Media announced its planned acquisition of 84% ofDorna Sports, which ownMotoGP andWSBK.[67][68]
On June 23, 2025, Liberty Media was given the go ahead by the European Commission to acquire Dorna Sports. The deal, completed on July 3, 2025, made Dorna a part of the Formula One Group.[69][70][71][72]
Liberty has issuedtracking stocks for each of the three divisions, and each tracking stock is in three individual series (A, B and C) having individual voting rights, meaning that the company's common stock trades under nine individual stock symbols. Seven of the nine are listed on theNasdaq stock market and two tradeover the counter.[73][74]
Liberty Media has come under pressure fromPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), thanks toGCI company, an Alaskan subsidiary of Liberty Broadband. GCI is a corporate sponsor of theIditarod, an Alaskan dogsledding race that has lost multiple participants and sponsorships over the years.[77] More than a dozen companies, including ExxonMobil, Alaska Airlines, and Chrysler, have dropped their Iditarod sponsorships over the years, amidst campaign efforts from PETA showing the conditions endured by dogs during and between races.[78] Animal advocates have made pleas to Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei to end GCI’s Iditarod sponsorship.[79] Maffei has not released a statement on GCI’s sponsorship. According to PETA, more than 150 dogs have died while running the Iditarod, and that number does not include dogs they say are killed during the off-season because they aren’t fast or fit enough.[80]
