John Malone at Liberty Again
By TIERNAN RAY
online.barrons.com
THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2006 8:06 p.m. EDT
"JOHN MALONE, THE CABLE COWBOY from Connecticut, is at it again...
...That could be changing. The company this week replaced its shares, normally traded on the New York Stock Exchange, with two tracking stocks on the Nasdaq that represent the two sides of its business.
One, Liberty Interactive, is a straightforward way to bet on QVC, the U.S.'s largest television shopping network.
But investors are more interested in the other stock, Liberty Capital, which tracks Malone's minority stakes in media giants such as News Corp. and Time Warner, among others.
Shares of Liberty Capital rose 7% on Wednesday, their first official day of trading, and were up almost 4% on Thursday while Liberty Interactive shares sank 3%.
And while Capital may be the hardest part of Liberty to understand because of the many different kinds of assets it constitutes, investors are betting that Malone will divest himself of News Corp. and the rest, and use cash to either buy back Liberty shares or make acquisitions, making it easier to value the unit..." |
