Liberty Media Corp., the television company controlled by John Malone, had a second-quarter profit, reversing a loss, as its QVC unit’s operating income rose 25 percent. The unit’s shares rose 6.2 percent Wednesday.
Liberty Media had profit of $479 million, up from a loss of $107 million a year ago, the company said in a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Revenue jumped 15 percent to $2.11 billion, after the QVC home-shopping unit’s sales rose as customers bought jewelry and products online.
Liberty Media separated its stock during the quarter into Liberty Interactive, for the QVC channel and its Web shopping business, and Liberty Capital, for investments such as the Starz Entertainment channels.
Liberty Interactive forecast a “low-double-digit” percentage increase in profit and sales this year, while results from Starz will be little changed.
Operating income at Liberty Interactive Group rose to $242 million from $193 million a year earlier, Douglas County-based Liberty Media said in a statement. Sales rose 10 percent to $1.63 billion.
In other news, Liberty Global Inc., the largest owner of cable-television systems outside the U.S., said it agreed to buy cable-TV company Karneval for about $415 million to expand in the Czech Republic.
Karneval serves 253,000 cable customers and 57,000 broadband users, Liberty Global said.
