Liberty Media filed to split off Liberty Capital and...
Liberty Media filed to split off Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz, in an effort to bolster their stock price, the company said. At the same time, Liberty Media will convert the Liberty Interactive tracking stock into an asset-based security. In…
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a preliminary proxy filed Thursday with the SEC, Liberty Media said the tax-free split-off will create a separate Splitco entity and give Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz shares in the new company. Splitco hasn’t been named yet, but will contain the Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz tracking stocks. A special shareholder meeting to vote on the split will be in 2011, but the date hasn’t been finalized, according to SEC documents. Liberty Interactive will contain Expedia, QVC and several other Internet companies. Liberty Capital contains Starz Media, the Atlanta Braves, TruePosition, 40 percent ownership of Sirius XM Radio and minority equity investments in Time Warner Cable, Live Nation and Time Warner Inc. Liberty Starz contains premium programmer Starz Entertainment, which has 16 channels, and was spun off from Liberty Entertainment in 2009. In preparing for the deal, Liberty Media earlier this month sold its 60 percent of IAC Interactive for $220 million and IAC’s Evite and Gifts.com businesses. The split will “simplify the complexity” tied the company’s three tracking stock structure since Splitco will have two tracking stocks and Liberty Media will keep “pure play, asset-based stock,” Liberty Media said. The company was “burdened” by “complexity discount” on its stock and simplifying the capital structure will cut the discounts at which the tracking stocks trade and encourage investment in them, Liberty Media said.