Liberty Media to Reclassify Shares Into Three Tracking-Stock Groups

By Nathan Becker 

Liberty Media Corp. on Thursday 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.

Liberty said holders of its Series A, B and C common stock would get shares of corresponding series of the Braves, Media and Sirius tracking stock for each share of Liberty they own.

Liberty Chief Executive Greg Maffei said the move would highlight financial performance of the groups' assets, give investors more choice and "enable targeted capital raising."

Liberty, which already has a complex structure, makes this move as many companies are stripping down and spinning off businesses in an attempt to give investors more focused choices and drive profit.

Meanwhile, Liberty Interactive Corp., of which Mr. Maffei is also CEO, said it would pursue spinoffs of companies to be called CommerceHub Inc. and Liberty Expedia Holdings Inc., to holders of its Liberty Ventures Group stock. Mr. Maffei said the spinoffs "should unlock value...in an efficient manner."

The Expedia Holdings business would be made up of its stake in Expedia Inc. and Bodybuilding.com LLC, among other things. The CommerceHub spinoff would be made up of its CommerceHub business, which helps companies with online sales channels.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 12, 2015 08:04 ET (13:04 GMT)

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