The Malone shuffle

摘要

As chairman of Liberty Media, the former content division of TLI, John Malone controls large stakes in some of the world's most valuable media properties. He has a saying: "Our door is always open for business. Every one of our assets is tradable." This week, Mr Malone, who built TCI into America's biggest cable operator before selling it last year to AT&T for $54 billion, was walking the talk. In a characteristically complex deal— with Mr Malone, financial engineering sometimes seems an end in itself—Liberty is folding its cable assets in Europe and Latin America, valued at $5.3 billion, into the international operations of UnitedGlobalCom (UGC). Liberty will take a 38% share in ugc and have 72% of the voting rights. However, Mr Malone has committed himself not to exercise control and, for the next ten years, he will vote with UGC's boss, his old friend and fellow Denver cable baron, Gene Schneider.