Liberty Media Reports Higher Revenue, Vivendi Settlement
February 26 2016 - 9:18AM
Dow Jones News
By Anne Steele
Liberty Media Corp. on Friday reported its profit fell 5.9% in
the final quarter of the year, though revenue climbed more than
expected on strong performance from SiriusXM.
Liberty Media also said French media company Vivendi Universal
SA has agreed to pay Liberty Media $775 million to settle a lawsuit
related to a dispute over a 2001 transaction.
The Vivendi lawsuit stemmed from Liberty's sale in 2001 of its
interest in USA Networks Inc. to Vivendi in exchange for shares in
the French conglomerate. Those shares lost much of their value soon
after the deal when Vivendi suffered from a liquidity crisis.
Shares of Liberty Media rose 2% to $36 in light trading
premarket.
Liberty Media Chief Executive Greg Maffei said SiriusXM ended
the year with a record 29.6 million subscribers. He pointed to the
satellite radio service's long-term agreement with Howard Stern
that includes his extensive audio and video library, in addition to
channels with David Bowie, Billy Joel, Hank Haney and Nigel
Barker.
The Englewood, Colo., media conglomerate in November said it
would reclassify its common shares into three tracking-stock
groups, a move the company said will highlight each group's
operations and make it more practical to raise money for them.
Liberty said one of the groups would be called Liberty Braves
Group, focused on assets related to the Atlanta Braves baseball
team, while another would include the company's roughly 60% stake
in satellite-radio operator Sirius XM Holdings Inc. The third group
would include Liberty's stakes in Live Nation Entertainment Inc.,
Time Warner Inc. and Viacom Inc.
On Friday, Mr. Maffei said the company continues to make
progress on its plan to recapitalize into three tracking stock
groups, and expects to hold a shareholder vote in April.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Liberty Media reported a profit
of $134.6 million, down from $143.1 million a year earlier. Revenue
rose 10% to $1.21 billion, mostly due to SiriusXM. Liberty Media
said its ownership of SiriusXM stood at 62.1% as of Jan. 29.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast $1.19 billion in
revenue.
The company said it repurchased 298,000 shares for $11.7 million
at an average price of $39.34 a share.
Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 26, 2016 09:03 ET (14:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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