Liberty Media CEO Says Company May Consider Buying DirecTV from Hughes

[John Corn]

DENVER -- Liberty Media Corp. (L, LMCB) Chief Executive Robert Bennett said Thursday that the company would be interested in looking at an acquisition of Hughes Electronics Corp.'s (GMH) DirecTV.

During a conference call, Mr. Bennett said Liberty, the investment company run by cable magnate John Malone, would have an interest in making the acquisition of the satellite-TV provider on a standalone basis or in partnership with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

News Corp. recently raised $1.3 billion through a secondary stock offering in its Fox Entertainment Group Inc. unit, fueling speculation that it may be preparing a move to acquire DirecTV.


Full Story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/dowjones/20021115/bs_dowjones/200211141959001067)

[Bada Boom]

John Malone --- ha ha ha. For those who think that Charlie Ergan or Rupert Murdoch are not the best thing that happened/could happen to DBS, let me tell you about John Malone. You, DTV subs, would wish that Rupie purchase if Malone gets to head of the GM action for Hughes.

I could go on, but John's Boys would find me and ....................

[dlsnyder]

With the poor financial condition of Cablevision it is highly unlikely that he could do it alone, if he could do it at all.

[The Shadow]

Malone has nothing to do with Cablevison, that's the Dolans. Malone used to run TCI, which used to own the 11 transponders at 119 that DirecTV has today. Those transponders were transfered to Primestar (which TCI was the lead partner in) and ultimately to DirecTV. TCI cable was sold to AT&T and so it will soon be part of Comcast.

[zimm0who0net]

Malone, Murdoch and Ergan have been battling over DBS (and stabbing each other in the back) since the late 80's. If you're interested in the history of all this I highly recommend the book "Cutthroat: High Stakes & Killer Moves on the Electronic Frontier" by Stephen Keating

[mnassour]

Absolutely! An excellent read.

Q: John Malone, Rupert Murdoch and Charlie Ergen are on a small boat in a hurricane. Who comes out alive?




A: The American DBS industry.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by mnassour
Absolutely! An excellent read.

Q: John Malone, Rupert Murdoch and Charlie Ergen are on a small boat in a hurricane.

And thus the cyclone logo (a trademark of Hughes Electronics corp) is very appropriate.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by dlsnyder
With the poor financial condition of Cablevision it is highly unlikely that he could do it alone, if he could do it at all.

I'm wondering why Cablevision is still alive... Maybe OOL is what's propping them up.

[Mark Holtz]

Could someone educate me? The cable companies that I'm familiar with are Scripps-Howard, Comcast, and AT&T Boardband, all of whom owned the local cable franchise respectively.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Z'Loth
Could someone educate me? The cable companies that I'm familiar with are Scripps-Howard, Comcast, and AT&T Boardband, all of whom owned the local cable franchise respectively.

Those in the NY metro area that I am familiar with are:

AOL Time Warner
RCN
Cablevision
US cable

Time Warner is by far the biggest. The rest are smaller operations.