Oligopoly brief: Liberty Global and Liberty Media
US-based Liberty Global recently announced it would buy Swiss Cablecom Holdings, the largest Swiss cable TV company. The deal is for $2.2 billion along with debt assumption . Cablecom was owned by a consortium of banks and equity firms. The company was about to go on the stock market as an IPO when the Liberty bid came through.
The move increases Liberty's European cable empire. The company is the #1 cable operator in 11 countries, including France, the Netherlands, The Czech Republic , and Poland. It is present in 14 countries in Europe, as well as in Japan, where it owns a significant share in the #1 cable service, and also in Latin America, where it has a significant share of leading cable companies in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The company is a leader in providing internet and VOIP services, and is working on interactive TV.
Liberty Global is a holding company that was created by the acquisition of the UnitedGlobalCom by Liberty Media earlier this year. Liberty Media spun off that company with its own international division.
While the two similarly-named companies are now separate, but in some ways they are still joined at the head. The voting stock in both companies is tightly held and much of it is owned by CEO and major stockholder John Malone. Liberty Global cable systems make extensive use of programming developed by the US company.
That complex relationship is typical of Liberty Media's dealings. Most of the company's holdings are partial. And then there's the case of the Discovery Corporation and its cable channels, which has been spun off into a privately-held company that is still mostly held by Liberty and its stockholders. In a similar way, Liberty Media owns substantial but not controlling interest in a wide variety of competing businesses, from News Corp., Time Warner, and InterActive Corporation (IAC).
The company itself has an meteoric and confusing history. Malone started a cable company in Colorado called TCI in the 1970s. He swallowed up the competition and grew a major empire, eventually adopting the name of a company named Liberty it merged with in the 1990s. By 1999 it was acquired by AT&T to form the US's largest cable network at the time, and Malone had become the largest stockholder in AT& T. In 2002, AT&T spun Liberty off again minus its domestic cable system. Since then, .Liberty has furiously acquired and spun off properties or parts of media properties.
From a cable company Liberty has truly become a holding company. There have been rumors recently that Liberty Media was interested in getting control of News Corp., enough so Rupert Murdoch reportedly got worried. There are also rumors that Liberty itself will be sold off to News Corp., and that it's reorganizing itself for that.
What follows is a listing of these Malone-led companies. I have to warn you that it probably is not very accurate, especially with the recent spin-offs and restructurings, not to mention the complex ownership issues. The Liberty Global divisions are at the end.
Liberty Media and Liberty Global properties
| Sector |
Business (and share when available) |
Country |
Notes |
| Cable channels |
Animal Planet |
US, UK, Europe, Japan |
25% share in Asia, Latin America |
| |
Cotrt TV (50%) |
US |
|
| |
Discovery Channel (50%) |
US, Europe, Japan, Inida, Germany, Latin America, etc. |
also Discovery for Kids, Discovery Science, Discovery Haalth |
| |
Europe Showcase |
Europe |
|
| |
FitTV |
US |
formerly The Health Network |
| |
Health UK |
UK |
|
| |
The Learning Channel |
US |
|
| |
Travel and Living |
Latin America |
|
| |
Travel Channel |
US |
|
| |
Game Show Network |
US (50%) |
|
| |
Starz |
US |
|
| |
WAM! |
US |
Children's channel |
| |
QVC |
US |
Shopping channel |
| Television-related |
Ascent Media Group |
US |
Post-production and distribution services |
| |
On Command |
US |
In-room pay-for-TV for the hotel industry |
| Wireless |
TruePosition |
US |
Wireless location technology |
| Liberty Global companies |
Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico |
Puerto Rico |
|
| |
Metropolis-Intercome (50%) |
Chile |
|
| |
Jupiter Telecommunications (45%) |
Japan |
TV, Internet, and VOIP service |
| |
UPC Broadband |
Netherlands, France, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Norway, Romania, Slovak republic, Hungary, Sweden |
TV, Internet, and VOIP service |
| |
chellomedia |
Europe |
Interactive and tramscational television |
| |
VTR Globalcom |
Chile |
TV, Internet, and VOIP service |
6:07:43 PM 
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