Liberty Media Clamoring for a chunk of AOL Deal

A discussion by well renowned Liberty Media Corporation with Time Warner is now being initiated by the former. The topic? Its internet dial up business with AOL or American On Line. According to Liberty’s top man John Malone, there are no discussions that have taken place right now although they is the possibility of having one since Liberty Capital has a passive possession of stocks in Time Warner and Sprint. However, Liberty Capital is known to prefer for ownership operating companies that generate cash. And Time Warner has not yet taken any steps with regards to making it an asset that can generate a cash income. There were tentative proposals but nothing that Liberty is interested to act on. Nevertheless, Liberty is still in close contact with the people in Time Warner, especially with its CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, in anticipation of the time that transactions between them will soon follow through.

There already has been much talk in the past about Time Warner. There were actually rumors in circulation on their intent to get rid of one of their divisions, which is the ISP division. Liberty Chairperson Malone is one of those people who have tried to negotiate a swap with them, but instead, they were able to take control over DirecTV, a provider of satellite television in the US.

In May 2007, the present tally of shares that Liberty held in Time Warner totaled to 103 million, which is only approximately 2.8 percent. This is the total after 68.5 million shares were exchanged with the rights to own the Atlanta Braves, which is a baseball team in the major league in Atlanta.  They also got the group for Leisure Arts of Time Inc.

Time Warner has been known to have no qualms in talking to Liberty because of their capability to produce efficient transactions of both parties. They know that they can trust them to mean what they say and to proceed with it, commented CEO to Liberty Media Greg Maffei.

DirecTV and Dish Network

Malone has been also found commenting on the new rumors spreading on a merger between DirecTV and Dish Network, both peers in the satellite TV business. He in fact mentions that there may be problems which may arise from such a merger, using a regulatory point of view. This is despite the fact that he was known earlier to have said otherwise.

Liberty’s revenue also comes from several cable television channels, which they own. They are namely QVC shopping channel and Starz Entertainment. They have received an increase in revenue and percentage from these two channels indirectly under their wing.

Liberty Media has divided into smaller companies which is often easier to handle than a big one. It has Liberty Entertainment and Liberty Interactive. This is to allow the investors to take a closer look on their business and stocks as well as for easy handling. Since then, these companies have boasted record highs in their revenues. Unfortunately, they still do not have AOL under their supervision which is what they are trying to settle right now.