Douglas County-based Liberty Media Corp. said Thursday it would be willing to spend between $50 million and $5 billion on new e-commerce investments, in addition to gaining more companies through stock-for-asset swaps.
Chief executive Greg Maffei said during an earnings call that despite that wide range, few companies would fit the bill.
“If you start looking at how many attractive, independent, stand-alone e-commerce businesses at reasonable valuation there are that fit that criteria, the field narrows quickly,” he said.
E-commerce powerhouse has a market capitalization of more than $28 billion, for example.
“Liberty’s Interactive arm is pursuing more vertical integration,” said April Horace, Janco Partners equity-research analyst. “They’re looking to increase their Internet sales, and as long as it’s leverageable with the QVC machine, I think that’s great.”
Maffei said Liberty was pleased to “finally” close on its deal with News Corp. for a 41 percent stake in DirecTV. The deal, originally struck in December 2006, cleared regulatory hurdles this week and was finalized Wednesday.
“There were certainly doubters at the time we did that deal, people who thought that we were getting the lesser end of the bargain, being forced into this trade,” he said. “We believed, and do believe, that DTV’s management was on track.”
Liberty will now turn its attention to obtaining operating assets for some of its other investment holdings, particularly Time Warner, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Motorola. Liberty has had introductory discussions with those companies, Maffei said, but no deals have been reached.
Despite a deal last May for the Atlanta Braves and three craft publications, and $1 billion in cash, Liberty still holds a considerable investment in Time Warner.
Overall, operating cash flow for Liberty Media totaled $531 million. Sales rose 4 percent to $2.33 billion, compared with a 9 percent gain a year earlier.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
Kimberly S. Johnson: 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com
