Bob, are you following me around on SI? I'd like to keep my affair with Carolyn personal.
Ps
I've been buying USAI while Allen sold out.
>>05/03 09:41
USA Networks Says Allen Sells Stake for $568.6 Mln (Update3)
By Kim Chipman
New York, May 3 (Bloomberg) -- USA Networks Inc., the media and Internet company run by Barry Diller, said billionaire Paul Allen sold his entire stake in the company earlier this week in a private transaction valued at $568.6 million.
Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., sold his 19.95 million USA Networks shares for $28.50 each, the company said. Allen didn't return calls seeking comment. USA Networks' stock hit a record high of $33.53 last month.
Diller is selling USA Networks' entertainment unit, including the USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel cable channels, to Vivendi Universal SA. That will leave USA Networks to focus on electronic- retail businesses such as the Home Shopping Network and travel Web site Expedia.
``We're very focused on bearing down on cable and interactive television,'' Allen said in an interview with Dow Jones, which reported the sale earlier.
Shares of USA Networks rose 20 cents to $29.55 in early trading. The stock had risen 21 percent in the past year.
Allen acquired about 14.5 million split-adjusted shares of USA Networks in July 1997 by selling the company his 49.6 percent stake in Ticketmaster Group Inc. He made the bulk of his fortune in stock of the software firm he founded with Bill Gates.
On April 24, USA Networks said its first-quarter loss widened more than 10-fold because the value of acquisitions fell. Sales rose at the company's electronic-commerce businesses.
The loss increased to $286.4 million, or 73 cents a share, from $26.6 million, or 7 cents, in the year-earlier quarter. Sales rose 4.6 percent to $1.37 billion from $1.31 billion, the company said in a statement. |
