Liberty Media Corp., a diversified media-holding company, said today it has purchased 78.3 million shares of DirecTV to increase its stake in the No. 1 satellite-television provider to 48 percent.
Liberty Media, controlled by media entrepreneur John Malone, financed the private transaction by borrowing $1.98 billion against a new equity collar on 110 million shares of DirecTV Group Inc.
“The additional shares and equity collar each increase our exposure to DirecTV’s equity and further align Liberty’s interests with those of the DirecTV shareholders,” Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media, said in a statement.
The equity collar consists of puts and calls with maturities ranging “up to 4.4 years,” the company said.
Liberty Media acquired a 41 percent stake in DirecTV in late February by exchanging it for a 16 percent stake in News Corp. plus $625 million in cash.
Englewood-based Liberty Media has divided its interests into three units with separate tracking stocks. The stock purchase was attributed to the Liberty Entertainment tracking stock group.
The other two stocks are Liberty Interactive Group, consisting of QVC home shopping network and other e-commerce businesses, and Liberty Capital Group, composed of cable television channel Starz Entertainment LLC and other entertainment businesses.
Liberty Entertainment’s stock rose $1.37 or 5.9 percent, to $24.49 a share and shares of DirecTV rose 56 cents, or 2 percent, to $26.56 in early trading.
DirecTV, based in El Segundo, Calif., is the nation’s leading satellite-TV service with 16.8 million subscribers.
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