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John Malone: Liberty Media To Become “As Complicated As We Need” To Be

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday November 17, 2011 @ 1:30pm PSTTags: Barnes & Noble, Borders, John Malone Liberty Media, Liberty Media, Liberty Starz Group, Live Nation, Mel Karmazin, Michael Rapino, Nook, Sirius XM

Investors seemed to like what they heard at today’s annual confab for John Malone’s Liberty Media. Shares of the hodge-podge of companies it either owns or controls were up on a day when the market was shaken by new fears that the European debt crisis will widen. Liberty Starz ended the day +1% and Liberty Capital was +0.5% after their parent said it will combine the two tracking stocks into a single asset-based security. But Live Nation was +6.7%, Barnes & Noble was +5%, and Sirius XM  was +4.8% following CEO presentations to the Street.

Malone was more subdued than usual. But the executive who became a billionaire on the back of his devilishly complex deals — often to help him avoid paying taxes — got a chuckle in his response to a question about whether the changes in his tracking stocks will make their businesses confusing for investors. “We’ll get as complicated as we need to get to highlight value.” he said.

Sirius XM’s Mel Karmazin won the biggest laughs, though, with READ MORE »

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Amazon’s Kindle Fire Gets An Early Spark, And Mixed Reviews

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday November 14, 2011 @ 11:53am PSTTags: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook

Amazon stoked the hype around its new Kindle Fire tablet by shipping it a day ahead of schedule, the company announced today. That’s a smart move: In addition to the extra PR and customer goodwill it generates, the decision gives the online retailer one more day to sell videos, music, and books that will “offset the weaker margins (or even losses)” it may see this quarter by selling the tablet below cost, Caris & Co analyst Scott Tilghman says. Research firm iSuppli estimates that Amazon spends about $210 to make each Kindle Fire that it sells for $199. No wonder the promotion machine is in high gear: Hulu Plus — which is available on the iPad and Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Tablet — today joined the parade of content companies crowing about their Kindle Fire apps. A Hulu Plus subscription costs $7.99 a month, and can be used on any device that accommodates it. Hulu’s “never-ending mission is to bring you the world’s premium content when, where and how you want,” senior product manager Lonn Lee says in a blog post. Read More »

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Amazon Unveils Media Apps For Kindle Fire

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday November 9, 2011 @ 12:09pm PSTTags: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Facebook, Kindle Fire, Netflix, Nook Tablet, Pandora, Rhapsody, The Weather Channel

The tablet wars are intensifying as the holiday shopping season approaches: Amazon kicked things up today by announcing that Kindle Fire customers will only have to fill out one form to register for multiple media services including Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, … Read More »

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Barnes & Noble’s New Nook Throws Hat Into Tablet Race

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday November 7, 2011 @ 9:54am PSTTags: Barnes & Noble, Nook, Nook Tablet

Barnes & Noble today unveiled its new Nook Tablet, which comes preloaded with apps from Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora. The boost in entertainment options compared with previous versions signals the company’s intention to compete in the space against the … Read More »

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Media Stocks Slammed Amid Concerns Of A Double-Dip Recession

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday September 22, 2011 @ 4:49pm PDTTags: Barnes & Noble, CBS, Coinstar, Comcast, Cumulus Media, Disney, IMAX, Live Nation, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, News Corp, Sirius XM Radio, Sony, The New York Times, Time Warner, Viacom, Westwood One

Media stocks suffered along with just about everyone else today after the Federal Reserve stirred recession fears by reporting “significant downside risks to the economic outlook” — and World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that global economies are in … Read More »

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Liberty Media Anticipates A Premium Tier For Online Video

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday September 22, 2011 @ 8:25am PDTTags: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Greg Maffei, John Malone, John Malone Liberty Media, Liberty Media, Netflix, QVC, Sirius XM Radio, Starz

It’s “more likely than not” that new online video streaming providers such as Amazon will offer some programming on a premium tier — a contrast with Netflix’s single-price package – Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said this morning at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia conference. He broadly hinted that his company’s desire to charge extra for Starz was a big reason why the premium channel recently ended negotiations to extend its carriage deal with Netflix. The current arrangement, he says, is “inconsistent” with the way consumers receive Starz on pay TV.

More broadly, Maffei says that Liberty is on track to split off its Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz tracking stocks by tomorrow now that it has beat back a court challenge by bondholders. The deal transfers some assets to the spun-off companies, violating some bond agreements. But the Delaware Supreme Court yesterday upheld a lower court decision that said the split-off is OK because it isn’t part of what it called an “overall scheme” to hurt bondholders. That likely won’t change the overall strategy for the company that’s controlled by the famously tax-averse former cable titan John Malone — and that some analysts say is little more than a portfolio of stock holdings. “Finding things to buy at attractive prices is the biggest chalenge we have today,” Maffei says. Read More »

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Liberty Turns Page On Takeover Bid, Instead Invests $200M Into Barnes & Noble

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday August 18, 2011 @ 8:19pm PDTTags: Barnes & Noble, Greg Maffei, John Malone, Liberty Media, Nook, QVC

In May, John Malone’s Liberty offered to buy all of Barnes & Noble for $1B. But the offer stalled and the book retailer said Thursday that the takeover talks had been ditched in light of the $204M investment agreement. … Read More »

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UPDATE: Media Stocks End Day -7.3% As Markets Grapple With S&P’s Debt Downgrade

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday August 8, 2011 @ 11:22am PDTTags: AMC Networks, Barnes & Noble, Cablevision, CBS, Coinstar, Comcast, Dow Jones, DreamWorks Animation, Entercom, Liberty Media, LIN TV, McClatchy, McGraw-Hill, News Corp, Pandora Media, Rovi, Sinclair Broadcasting, Sirius XM, Sony, Time Warner, TiVo, Viacom, Westwood One

UPDATE, 2 PM: The market deteriorated as the day wore on, continuing the worst market slump since 2008. The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting and Entertainment Index closed down 7.3% — exceeding the 5.6% decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 6.7% drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500, and 6.9% fall at NASDAQ.  CBS’ -10.3% slide made it the leading loser among media’s Big Guns. It was followed by News Corp (-7.7%), Viacom (-7.1%), Comcast (-6.6%), Sony (-6.4%), Disney (-6.1%), and Time Warner (-5.8%).

Double-digit losers include AMC Networks (-12.8%), LIN TV (-12.7%), Sirius XM (-12.7%), RealD (-12.6%), Cumulus Media (-11.9%), TiVo (-11.4%), Entercom (-10.9%), Westwood One (-10.8%), and E.W. Scripps (-10.3%). Those losing at least 9% include National CineMedia, Dish Network, Arbitron, Sinclair Broadcasting, Rovi, Outdoor Channel, Crown Media, Electronic Arts, Cablevision, and Coinstar. Read More »

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Does Liberty Media’s Malone Have A Vision?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday May 24, 2011 @ 3:53pm PDTTags: Barnes & Noble, John Malone, John Malone Liberty Media, Liberty Media, Live Nation Entertainment, Starz

Those who remember Liberty Media Chairman John Malone from the days when he was the swashbuckling King of Cable like to think of him as a strategic mastermind who still wants to shape the future of media. But lately he’s looked like a guy … Read More »

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Liberty Media Bids For Barnes & Noble

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 19, 2011 @ 5:53pm PDTTags: Barnes & Noble, John Malone, Liberty Media

Barnes & Noble said today that John Malone’s Liberty Media, whose holdings include entertainment businesses as diverse as QVC, Starz Media and Sirius XM Radio, has offered to buy the nation’s biggest bookstore chain for $1.02 billion. The $17-per-share offer … Read More »

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