The extent of the media slowdown was highlighted on Thursday when Liberty Media, the US cable giant, announced a first half deficit of $4.6 billion. This compares with losses of $2.3 billion in the first six months of last year.
Liberty, which is owned by John Malone, has an 18% share in News Corporation which yesterday announced losses of $6.3bn for 2001 (see
Write-Downs Hammer News Corp Figures). The group also has interests in the troubled media giant, AOL Time Warner and the loss-making mobile phone network, Sprint PCS and has been forced to write down the value of its investments by over $5 billion.
Last month Malone reneged on an offer to buy out bondholders at Telewest (see Liberty Backtracks On Telewest Bid) although Liberty still has a 25% share in the debt-laden company. Another cable subsidiary, the Dutch-based UPC has warned that it may file for bankruptcy after running up debts of more than E10 billion.
