Cable magnate John Malone has become the second largest voting shareholder in News Corporation after Rupert Murdoch after acquiring a $1.82 billion stake in the media giant.
Malone now owns 9% of the voting stock through his corporate vehicle, Liberty Media. Murdoch retains a 30% stake in News Corp.
The surprise deal has prompted media analysts to speculate that Malone may be attempting to pressure Murdoch into giving more carriage to his channels, which include QVC. News Corporation now has a strong presence in the US satellite TV market as a result of its recent acquisition of DirecTV (see Murdoch Gets Go-Ahead On US Satellite TV Ambitions).
“We have capitalised on an opportunity to exchange non-voting shares for voting shares at attractive prices to become the second largest voting block in one of the world’s premier media companies,” said Liberty Media president and chief executive, Robert Bennett.
He continued: “News Corp is one of the few truly global media companies and we are very pleased we were able to leverage our substantial equity interest in News Corp into a larger equity and voting stake.”
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