by Dennis “Cos” Costa
Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ:LCAPA, LCAPB, LINTA, LINTB, LSTZA, LSTZB) announced that it will be releasing its second quarter earnings in a conference call to be held on Monday, August 9th at 10:30AM ET. Liberty Media’s President and CEO Greg Maffei will be hosting the call to discuss the company’s financial performance in the second quarter. At the same time, he may also discuss his observations regarding the company’s outlook.
Given the company’s recent announcement of its plans to split-off its two tracking stock groups, Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz, from Liberty Intractive, which would become an asset-backed stock, analysts wll be interested in an update from Mr. Maffei regarding these transactions. As was reported, the proposed split-off will be effected by redeeming all outstanding shares of Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz traking stocks for shares in a newly formed company, “Newco.” The newly formed company will hold all the assets, and be subject to all the liabilities currently attributed to the current Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz tracking stock goups. Once completed, the common stock of “Newco” will be divided into two tracking stock groups, one tracking the assets that are currently attributed to Liberty Capital group, as Newco Capital, and the other tracking assets currently attributed to the Liberty Starz group, as Newco Starz.
Investors, analysts, and observers following Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) are always interested to hear the financial comments and observations made by Mr. Maffei, as 40% of Sirius XM is currently being held by Liberty as Preferred Shares in the company. As a result of Liberty’s ownership in Sirius XM, Mr. Maffei holds one of three Preferred Director seats on Sirius XM’s board. There has been much speculation of what Liberty’s plans for the future are. While Liberty can convert these preferred shares to common stock at its option, in their current form, the preferred shares give Liberty both a senior position to the common shareholder and a virtually dilution-proof status, should Sirius XM decide to convert common shares for debt — or to any other substitute for cash in the future. Liberty’s ownership position in Sirius XM is currently attributed to the assets assigned to the Liberty Capital group tracking stock.
Liberty Media’s second quarter earnings conference call can be heard live via the Internet at the company’s website. Links to the press release and replays of the call will also be available.
Position: Long SIRI
Contact the Author: denniscosta@satelliteradioplayground.com
Honestly, I’d be very surprised if they said anything worth more than fuel for even more speculation. I haven’t been too thrilled with Liberty’s less than enthusiastic approach to tell what they’re plan is. They seem satisfied leaving it all up to the blogs and speculators and analysts guessing. jmo.