05/19, 7:40pm
Liberty Media proposes buying Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble finished Thursday with surprise word that it had received a buyout proposal from Liberty Media for about $17 per share, or almost $1 billion. The deal would require that Barnes & Noble chair Leonard Riggio stay in his executive position and keep his controlling stake. Officials stressed the notice wasn't an approval of the deal and said they would study it with the help of a legal advisor team.
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05/04, 11:00am
DirecTV and Liberty Merge
DirecTV this morning said it would merge with the eventual spinoff of Liberty Entertainment from Liberty Media. The deal is meant to simplify Liberty Media's own structure but puts the satellite TV provider together with TV channels themselves, including the Game Show Network and 3 local sports stations. Executives at DirecTV will keep their positions, though the move will still have Liberty Media founder John Malone and trusts have about a 24 percent stake in the new venture.
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03/13, 7:25am
Sirius XM iPhone app
After avoiding declaring bankruptcy last month, Sirius XM has announced plan to stream its subscription radio service to the iPhone and iPod touch this spring as part of the company's latest fiscal results conference call. The new app will let either Apple device receive Sirius or XM stations over their Internet connections without requiring a separate radio. Currently, Sirius has roughly 19 million subscribers, an improvement of about 10 percent from last year, but is being significantly slowed by plunging car sales and the absence of radios.
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02/17, 9:50am
Liberty Stake in Sirius XM
Sirius XM on Tuesday morning said it has agreed to give an equity stake to Liberty Media in a deal worth $530 million. Best known as the owner of the DirecTV satellite service, Liberty is offering a $280 million emergency loan to cover both an immediately due $172 million debt for Sirius XM and to cover related financial costs. An extra $150 million also goes specifically to the XM half of the satellite radio provider, while Liberty is further volunteering to pay off about $100 million of Sirius XM's existing loans.
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02/13, 12:20pm
Sirius XM Debt Exchange
Sirius XM on Friday took emergency steps to save itself by starting a debt exchange. The company says it has started a deal that will swap about $172.5 million of the convertible senior notes keeping the company afloat for equivalents that will expire at the start of June 2011. The exchange would give the company about 1.5 years of extra time to pay the portion of the debt, which would otherwise have come due in December this year.
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