Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has two divisions, represented by separate tracking stocks, reflecting its ownership stakes in the Formula One Group and Live Nation Entertainment. As of 2025, Liberty Media owned three global motorsport businesses in the form of Formula One,[6] MotoGP and World Superbikes.[7]
History
1991–1999
Liberty Media began in March 1991 as a spin-off of Tele-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. 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 the Hallmark 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 of Encore and STARZ! into a single company—Encore Media Group, owned by Liberty. Encore was taking advantage of the growth of digital cable, while TCI, which had previously owned twenty percent of Encore, was more interested in traditional cable.[14][15]
After U.S. Department of Justice approval that required TCI to sell its 23.5% interest in Sprint Corporation PSC,[16] TCI was acquired by AT&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 to GE Capital, which could start new cable or Internet services. TCI had already planned digital cable set-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 develop interactive programming. The company would own 86% of TCI Music Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: TUNE/TUNEP). As of January 1, 1999, E! president and CEO Lee Masters would become the new company's CEO, and Bruce Ravenel would be chief technology officer.[21]
On June 2, 1999, Liberty announced that it would acquire the Associated Group for $2.8 billion.[22]
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, told The 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.[23] Liberty Digital lost $244 million with revenue of $66 million in 1999, thanks to investments in struggling Internet businesses homegrocer.com, drugstore.com, TiVo and iVillage. In August 2000, the company bought a 50% stake in the Sony Pictures-owned Game Show Network because of its interactive features.[24][25]
Another new company, Liberty Livewire, was formed in 2000 to hold the companies recently acquired by Liberty Media: Todd-AO (cost $92.5 million), Soundelux (cost $70.3 million) and Four Media (cost $263 million), which all provided post-production services.[26] David Beddow of TCI became CEO.[27]
2000–present
Liberty Media's Discovery 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 of DirecTV would be easier because AT&T would no longer require federal approval to complete such deals.[28] Liberty Media was spun off from AT&T on August 10, 2001.[29] This was one of three possible actions to ensure federal approval of AT&T's $54 billion acquisition of MediaOne Group—the others were selling its 25.5% share of Time Warner Entertainment and dropping 11.8 million cable customers.[30][31] 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.[32]
Divisions
Liberty has issued tracking 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 the Nasdaq stock market and two trade over the counter.[74][75]
Liberty Live Group (LLYVA/B/K)
- Live Nation Entertainment (30%)
- Associated Partners (33%)
- Griffin Gaming Fund (3%)
- INRIX (4%)
- Kroenke Arena Company (7%)
Controversies
Liberty Media has come under pressure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), thanks to GCI company, an Alaska-based subsidiary of Liberty Broadband. GCI is a corporate sponsor of the Iditarod, an Alaskan dogsledding race that has lost multiple participants and sponsorships over the years.[78] 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.[79] Animal advocates have made pleas to Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei to end GCI's Iditarod sponsorship.[80] 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.[81]
See also
- List of Colorado companies