EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Satellite-television provider Direc TV Group has authorized a $2 billion stock repurchase plan, boosting shareholder value in a slumping economy.
The company, which has bought back about $8.2 billion of its common stock since February 2006, sold $1.5 billion of notes last year to help finance repurchases. As of Sept. 30, it had about $3 billion in cash and cash equivalents, DirecTV said Monday in a statement.
Fourth-quarter and 2008 sales and operating profit increased from a year earlier, according to the average of analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Chief executive Chase Carey told investors in November that the economic slowdown was having a “marginal” impact.
The company, which is 52 percent owned by John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp., fell 53 cents to $21.55 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Liberty Media, based in Douglas County, proposed a spinoff of its stake in DirecTV into a new public company. The move may help Liberty reduce a gap between the value of its tracking stock and the price DirecTV commands on the Nasdaq.
