WILLMINGTON, DE (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Delaware Surpreme Court has given Liberty Media the go-ahead for their planned spin-off of Liberty Media Corporation, which will take on the assets of Liberty Capital, and the Starz premium cable television network. Liberty Capital holds approximately a 20% stake in entertainment giant Live Nation as well as SiriusXM among other companies.
Liberty hopes that the spin-off will allow Liberty Media focus on their profitable QVC home shopping network along with a host of Internet sites such as gifts.com and evite.com, renaming themselves to Liberty Interactive.
Liberty Media Chairman John Malone told the Wall Street Journal that the spin-off is part of an effort to transform Liberty from a passive stakeholder in various businesses to an active manager. Malone has been reported to be in preliminary discussions with Live Nation chairman Irving Azoff over taking the entertainment company private.
The split was challenged in court by the Bank of New York, a major Liberty bondholder, who claimed that the spin-off violated bond sales agreements that barred Liberty from transferring “substantially all” of its assets in a single or multiple transactions. Though the spin-off and similar spin offs of other units dating back to 2004, accounted for 71% of Liberty's assets Delaware Chancery Court Judge Travis Laster ruled in April that splitoffs could not be considered in aggregate, an opinion upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
