Liberty appears to be taking a bigger stake in Priceline.com
dailynews.yahoo.com
Tuesday August 1 9:24 AM ET
Liberty, Vulcan Buy $190 Million of
Priceline Stock
STAMFORD (Reuters) - Liberty Media Corp. (NYSE:LMGa - news),
which owns media and Internet businesses in several countries, and Vulcan
Ventures Inc., the investment organization of Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen, on Tuesday said they bought rights to shares of priceline.com
(NasdaqNM:PCLN - news) stock worth $190 million.
In a statement, the companies said they bought a forward contract for eight
million shares of the online retail giant's common stock equal to about $23.75
per share, entitling Liberty and Bellevue, Wash.-based Vulcan to acquire the
shares as of August 1, 2001 and no later than August 1, 2002.
Because their investment is currently illiquid, Vulcan and Liberty Media,
headed by John Malone, will receive options from priceline.com founder Jay
Walker to acquire an equity interest in Walker Digital Corp., founded by
Walker, at exercise prices based on valuations of between $1.5 billion and
$1.8 billion.
Walker said he will use about $125 million of the after-tax proceeds of the investment to participate in the third
financing round of WebHouse Club, also founded by Walker, which is an online gasoline and groceries
discount service.
Shares of priceline.com closed at 23-5/8 on the Nasdaq exchange Monday, just above their 52-week low of
22-5/8, while Liberty Media ``A'' shares closed at 22-1/4 on the New York Stock Exchange, midway
between their 52-week range of 30-11/16 -- 15-7/16. |
