Bill Gates believes in LSATA:
Liberty Satellite Rises 25% on Gates Reporting Stake
Washington, April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Satellite & Technology Inc. Series A common shares rose 25
percent as Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates reported holding a personal stake of 7.8 percent in the
satellite and wireless communications company controlled by Liberty Media Corp.
Englewood, Colorado-based Liberty Satellite's Series A shares rose 63 cents to $3.14 after Gates' investment
firm, Cascade Investment LLC, reported the investment in a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission today. Liberty Satellite's Series B shares rose $1, or 40 percent, to $3.50.
Cascade reported owning the equivalent of about 5.1 million Series A common shares of Liberty Satellite. The
SEC filing, a short-form Schedule 13G used by passive and institutional investors, didn't disclose when or for
how much Cascade acquired any of the stock.
Public disclosure of the investment puts Gates' personal stamp of approval on Liberty Satellite, ``like Michael
Jordan endorsing Gatorade,'' said Robert Routh, cable-and-media analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. in
New York.
Cascade, based in Kirkland, Washington, is managed by Michael Larson on behalf of Gates. Routh said
Larson likely wouldn't take a stake in a public company of more than 5 percent, which requires reporting to the
SEC, without Gates' permission.
The filing said Cascade's stake in Liberty Satellite includes 15,800 Series B common shares, which are
convertible into an equal number of Series A shares. The Series B shares can cast 10 votes each, versus one
apiece for Series A.
Officials at Liberty Satellite and Cascade couldn't be reached for comment.
Liberty Satellite is under voting control of Liberty Media, the cable-television programming arm of AT&T Corp.
Before today, Liberty Satellite Series A shares had fallen about 84 percent over the previous year.
Routh said Gates and Larson may have seen Liberty Satellite as an undervalued stock. The stake also
represents another in a history of common investment between the companies of Gates and John Malone,
who heads Liberty Media. Microsoft has invested in several Malone ventures, and a Malone company was an
early investor in the Microsoft Network, Routh said. |
