American television distributor, Liberty Media International (LMI) has sold its stakes in Belgium cable company Telenet and Irish cable company Chorus Communications to its UnitedGlobalCom Inc subsidiary.
Julie Ballantine, Liberty Media spokeswomen said the move “made more sense” for LMI’s European assets to be under the UnitedGlobalCom umbrella.
The sale comes while sister company Liberty Media Corp is expediting a stock swap with its competitor News Corp, which would boost Liberty shareholder control in the US company to 18%. The stock swap with News Corp will see Liberty exchange 86.9 Class A preferred shares for 92 million Class B voting shares. The move was expected to take place next month, but Liberty officials said the transaction would close in January.
Liberty said that there was no “underlying reason” for the early swap, despite coming amidst speculation of a growing rift between company owners, John Malone and Rupert Murdoch, as Malone looks to boost his stake in Murdoch’s News Corp(see News Corp to Buy Liberty Media Shares)
Ballantine commented: “We’re obviously still on speaking terms, and everything is fine with the relationship.” She added: “We made it clear in no uncertain terms that the swap should not be perceived as anything hostile.”