as nasdaq lmca industry mass media founded spin off from tele communications inc. 1991 headquarters douglas county colorado united states 1 key people john c. malone chairman greg maffei president & ceo products movie production tv production broadcasting cable television sport management revenue us 4.795 billion 2015 2 operating income us 950 million 2015 2 net income us 64 million 2015 2 total assets us 29.798 billion 2015 2 total equity us 10.933 billion 2015 2 number of employees 3 423 2016 2 divisions list of divisions website www.libertymedia.com formula one current season 2016 formula one season related articles history of formula one formula one racing formula one regulations formula one cars formula one engines formula one tyres lists drivers gp winners polesitters fastest laps champions runners up numbers constructors gp winners champions runners up seasons grands prix circuits race promoters trophy winners points scoring systems national colours sponsorship liveries racing flags red flagged races female drivers tv broadcasters fatalities video games records drivers constructors engines tyres races organisations fia fia world motor sport council formula one group formula one constructors association formula one teams association grand prix drivers association v t e liberty media corporation commonly referred to as liberty media or just liberty is an american mass media company controlled by chairman john c. malone who owns a majority of the voting shares . contents 1 history 1.1 the 1990s 1.2 the 2000s 1.3 the 2010s 2 divisions 2.1 liberty capital 2.1.1 former assets 2.2 liberty interactive group 2.3 other assets 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit the 1990s edit liberty media began in 1991 as a spin off of tci an american cable television group . peter barton hired by tci s malone served as president until retiring in april 1997 to start an investment firm and spend time with his family . 3 the company took over tci assets considered to have little value but barton completed a deal every ten days for six years and made the company a big success . liberty was merged back into tci in the mid 1990s . 4 on march 13 1998 liberty media group and tci group announced the merger of encore and starz into a single company encore media group owned by liberty . encore was taking advantage of the growth of digital cable while tci which had previously owned twenty percent of encore was more interested in traditional cable . 5 after u.s. department of justice approval that required tci to sell its 23.5 % interest in sprint corporation psc 6 tci merged with at & t on march 9 1999 7 for approximately 48 billion . liberty media merged with tci ventures group llc tciva tci s telephone and internet businesses and the resulting company became part of at & t giving liberty media 5.5 billion for use to repurchase stock or buy other companies . at & t bought the other tci businesses home corp. national digital television center and western tele communications inc. for 2.5 billion in cash . tci chairman malone who became head of the new company said buyers would not want all of tci but they would be interested in liberty media . 8 malone wanted to start a finance unit similar to ge capital which could start new cable or internet services . tci had already planned digital cable set top boxes . 9 on september 28 1998 liberty media announced the formation of liberty interactive a company which would take advantage of new technologies such as set top boxes to develop interactive programming . the company would own 86 % of tci music inc. nasdaq symbol tune tunep . as of january 1 1999 e entertainment president and chief executive officer lee masters would become the new company s ceo and bruce ravenel would be chief technology officer . 10 on september 10 1999 liberty media group renamed tci music to liberty digital inc. nasdaq symbol ldig with the new company trading on nasdaq s national market tier after liberty media traded most of its internet content interactive television assets and rights to provide at & t s cable systems with interactive services plus cash and notes valued at 150 million for tci music stock . 11 masters who became liberty digital s ceo told the wall street journal that the new company had a value of 1 billion 650 million of that from the interactive unit of liberty media which had also used the name liberty digital . 12 liberty digital lost 244 million with revenue of 66 million in 1999 thanks to investments in struggling internet businesses homegrocer.com drugstore.com tivo and ivillage . the company bought half of the game show network because of its interactive features . 13 on december 17 1999 tci satellite entertainment inc. tsat based in englewood colorado announced that liberty media was trading its interest in sprint pcs for 300 million in tci satellite preferred stock . a new company 90 % owned by liberty media and 10 % owned by tci satellite would combine the satellite related businesses and take advantage of the growing area of internet content . liberty media president and ceo robert r. bennett said the deal would benefit stockholders of both companies . 14 another new company was liberty livewire formed from todd ao and two other companies by liberty media which provided audio and video post production services . david beddow of tci became ceo . 15 the 2000s edit liberty media s discovery channel and qvc continued to do well but the company s newer projects had problems and the company s stock price dropped by half . malone no longer had the malone halo he once did . if at & t agreed to spin off liberty media new deals such as a possible news corp. purchase of directv would be easier because at & t would no longer require federal approval to complete such deals . 16 liberty media was spun off from at & t on august 10 2001 . 17 this was one of three possible actions to ensure federal approval of at & t s 54 billion acquisition of mediaone group the others were selling its 25.5 % share of time warner entertainment and dropping 11.8 million cable customers . 18 also in 2001 liberty media acquired the remainder of liberty digital and liberty satellite & technology formerly tci satellite . both companies were independent spinoffs of tci though liberty already owned 90 % of both companies after the exchange for sprint pcs stock . being independent increased their asset values but the stock prices of both dropped negating any benefits . 19 20 liberty media subsequently spent 5 billion on nine german regional cable networks . apart from television distribution it holds major interests in other groups . for example it was the largest shareholder in news corporation though the founding murdoch family owns more voting shares and had a 4 % stake in time warner . in june 2005 liberty media international combined with unitedglobalcom creating liberty global . in may 2006 time warner acquired liberty media s 50 % stake in court tv for 735 million . 21 on may 16 2006 idt sold its idt entertainment division to liberty media for all of liberty media s interests in idt 186 million in cash and the assumption of existing indebtedness . idt entertainment s assets and starz entertainment group s line of premium television channels will combine to produce content for all distribution platforms . 22 liberty negotiated an asset swap with news corp. and time warner that would give it control of directv and the atlanta braves baseball team . 23 on february 12 2007 the deal was completed with time warner wherein liberty would receive the atlanta braves a group of craft magazines and 1 billion in cash in exchange for 60 million shares of time warner stock valued at 1.27 billion as of market close on february 12 2007 . 24 the deal was approved by major league baseball and then completed on may 16 2007 . 25 on february 20 2008 the federal communications commission approved the exchange of 16.3 % of news corp. for 38.4 % of directv an 11 billion deal that also gave liberty sports networks in denver pittsburgh and seattle plus 550 million in cash . 26 in april 2007 liberty completed a purchase of green bay wisconsin television station wfrv tv and satellite station wjmn tv in escanaba michigan which serves the marquette michigan market . the deal was part of a swap of 7.59 million shares of common stock in cbs the stations owner that was held by liberty media ; in exchange for the stock cbs gave liberty the stations and 170 million in cash . 27 liberty announced plans in april 2011 to sell wfrv and wjmn to nexstar broadcasting group for 20 million . 28 on february 17 2009 liberty announced that it would invest up to 530 million into the struggling sirius xm radio inc. in a structured deal that would help the satellite radio provider avoid filing bankruptcy protection by meeting its obligations . the deal also provided for two board seats for liberty media and provided cash for operations and development with a maturity date of december 2012 for the loan . 29 on march 6 the two companies approved the second part of the deal with sirius xm getting 250 million immediately and liberty receiving 12.5 million shares of preferred stock convertible into a 40 % ownership of sirius xm common stock . 30 the 2010s edit on the fortune 500 list 2011 liberty media was ranked 224 moving up from 2010 when they were ranked 227 . 31 in may 2011 liberty announced it was in talks to buy the barnes & noble bookstore chain for 1.02 billion . 32 it eventually bought a 16 % stake in the form of preferred stock in barnes & noble for 204 million . 33 on august 8 2012 liberty media announced that it would spin off starz into a separate publicly traded company . 34 the spin off of starz inc. was completed on january 15 2013 . 35 the company agreed in march 2013 to pay 2.62 billion for 27.3 % of charter communications from apollo management oaktree capital management and crestview partners with the provision that liberty would not increase its stake past 35 % until after january 2016 but no more than 39.99 % . 36 by may 1 liberty completed the transaction and placed four directors on charter s board . 37 in late 2016 liberty media agreed to buy the formula one group for us 4.4 billion 3.3 billion . 38 divisions edit liberty capital edit atlanta braves macneil lehrer productions 67 % trueposition a company providing law enforcement and security agencies with positioning data . marginal shareholdings in companies including time warner viacom and sirius xm radio former assets edit court tv now trutv this was a 50 % stake with time warner which bought the other 50 % of court tv on may 12 2006 for 735 million . 39 two cbs affiliates wfrv tv channel 5 in green bay wisconsin and its semi satellite wjmn tv channel 3 in escanaba michigan under wfrv and wjmn television station inc. sold to nexstar broadcasting group starz media 75 % ; the weinstein company 25 % spun off as starz inc. on january 15 2013 . directv sports networks owners of fsn pittsburgh fsn rocky mountain fsn utah and fsn northwest now root sports liberty s 48 % interest in directv liberty s 50 % interest in gsn game show network fun technologies including fanball overture films starz entertainment including starz and encore sportsnet formerly ctv sportsnet 20 % now wholly owned by rogers media . 40 on september 3 2008 liberty media decided to initiate the process of spinning off