Qurate Retail Group

Qurate Retail, Inc.
Formerly
 Liberty Interactive Corporation (1998-2018)
Public
Traded as
Industry Media holding company
Founded Spin-off from Liberty Media (1998)
Headquarters Douglas County, Colorado, United States[1]
Key people
 John C. Malone (Chairman)
Greg Maffei (President and CEO)
Revenue Increase US$ 10.219 billion (2016)[2]
Decrease US$1.011 billion (2016)[2]
Decrease US$473 million (2016)[2]
Total assets Decrease US$14.357 billion (2016)[2]
Total equity Decrease US$4.860 billion (2016)[2]
Owner John C. Malone[3]
Liberty Media
Number of employees
 24,000 (2010)[2]
Divisions List of divisions
Website qurateretailgroup.com

Qurate Retail Group, formerly known as Liberty Interactive, is an American media conglomerate controlled by company Chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares.

History

1998 launch by Liberty Media

Liberty Interactive logo

Liberty Interactive was originally a division of Liberty Media; on September 28, 1998, Liberty Media announced the formation of Liberty Interactive, a division which would take advantage of new technologies such as set-top boxes to develop interactive programming. The company owned eighty-six percent of TCI Music Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: TUNE/TUNEP). As of January 1, 1999, E! Entertainment President and Chief Executive Officer Lee Masters would become the new company's CEO, and Bruce Ravenel would be Chief Technology Officer.[4]

On September 10, 1999, Liberty Media Group renamed TCI Music to Liberty Digital Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: LDIG), with the new company trading on NASDAQ's National Market tier, after Liberty Media traded most of its Internet content, interactive television assets, and rights to provide AT&T's cable systems with interactive services, plus cash and notes valued at $150 million, for TCI Music stock.[5] Masters, who became Liberty Digital's CEO, told The Wall Street Journal that the new company had a value of $1 billion, $650 million of that from the interactive unit of Liberty Media, which had also used the name Liberty Digital.[6] Liberty Digital lost $244 million with revenue of $66 million in 1999, thanks to investments in struggling Internet businesses HomeGrocer, drugstore.com, TiVo Corporation and iVillage. The company bought half of the Game Show Network because of its interactive features.[7]

On December 17, 1999, TCI Satellite Entertainment Inc. (TSAT), based in Englewood, Colorado, announced that Liberty Media was trading its interest in Sprint PCS for $300 million in TCI Satellite preferred stock. A new company, ninety percent owned by Liberty Media and ten percent owned by TCI Satellite, would combine the satellite-related businesses and take advantage of the growing area of Internet content.[8]

Spin offs

In 2004, IAC/Interactive announced the spin off of its travel site Expedia.com into the new company Expedia. Barry Diller remained the head of IAC/Interactive, and the Chairman of Expedia,[9] a move that was completed in 2005.[10]

In November 2007, IAC/InterActiveCorp, then valued at US$18 billion, announced four major spin offs : HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval (vacation and time-share business) and LendingTree. All spun off companies became publicly-traded. IAC retained most of its emerging internet businesses: Ask.com, Evite, Match.com , Vimeo, Citysearch and Zwinky. All spun off units were still headed by Barry Diller.[11][12]

In 2010, Liberty Media announced that it would spin off Liberty Starz and Liberty Capital and keep Liberty Interactive.[13][14]

In October 2014, Liberty Interactive spun off BuySeasons and its stake in TripAdvisor into a new company, Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings.[15]

In 2015, Liberty Interactive announced it would spin off CommerceHub as a separate company and its interests in Expedia and Bodybuilding.com into a new company, Liberty Expedia Holdings.[16]

2010s sales and acquisitions

In July 2014, Liberty Interactive announced it would be selling Provide Commerce (parent of ProFlowers) to FTD in return for an equity stake in FTD.[17]

In October 2014, Liberty Interactive announced its board had approved the division of the firm into two trading stocks – one for its shopping business, QVC Group, and another for its digital commerce, Liberty Digital Commerce, which will trade as Liberty Ventures Group.[18]

In April 2017, Liberty Interactive announced it would acquire Alaskan cable company GCI.[19] On July 6, 2017, Liberty Interactive announced that it would purchase the remaining 62% of HSN stock that it didn't already own, in a $2.1 billion all-stock deal at $40.36 a share.[20][21][22]

In July 2017, Liberty Interactive announced that later that year it would spin off its "cable holdings and other non-retail assets" into the new company Liberty Ventures, with Liberty Interactive to be renamed QVC Group. QVC Group will consist of QVC, HSN, and Zulily.[23]

On March 1, 2018, Liberty Interactive Corporation announced that it will rename itself to Qurate Retail Group.[24]

Activities

See also

References

  1. ↑ The postal designation of Englewood, a city in neighboring Arapahoe County, is used in the company’s mailing address.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Qurate Retail Group". Google Finance.
  3. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/12010847/Liberty-Global-snaps-up-Cable-and-Wireless-in-3.6bn-deal.html
  4. ↑ (Press Release) http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-16-1999/0000910826&EDATE= (via PR Newswire). Retrieved March 5, 2009.
  5. ↑ (Press Release) http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-10-1999/0001019050&EDATE= (via PR Newswire). Retrieved March 5, 2009.
  6. ↑ "Liberty Media, TCI Form Internet Group - InternetNews". www.internetnews.com. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
  7. ↑ Doan, Amy (August 26, 2000). "Liberty Is Sweet on Interactive TV". Forbes. Retrieved March 5, 2009.
  8. ↑ . (via PR Newswire). Retrieved February 24, 2009.
  9. ↑ Reuters (21 December 2004). "Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive to Spin Off Expedia". FOX News. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI) today announced the successful completion of the spin-off of Expedia, Inc. to IAC shareholders". Viewfinder. 9 August 2005. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  11. ↑ Gershberg, Michele (5 November 2007). "IAC to spin off four units, shares up". Reuters. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  12. ↑ Fabrikant, Geraldine (6 November 2007). "IAC/InterActive to Split Into 5 Companies". New York Times. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  13. ↑ Liberty Media Will Spin Off Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz
  14. ↑ company history - Liberty Media
  15. ↑ "Liberty Interactive files to spin off TripAdvisor stake". Reuters. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  16. ↑ "Liberty Interactive to spin off CommerceHub, Liberty Expedia". Reuters. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  17. ↑ FTD to buy Liberty Interactive's floral-gift business for $430M
  18. ↑ "Liberty Interactive splits into cable shopping, e-commerce groups" (Press release). Reuters. 6 October 2014.
  19. ↑ "Liberty Interactive Buys GCI of Alaska". Telecompetitor. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  20. ↑ "QVC to Acquire Rival HSN for More Than $2 Billion" (Press release). Wall Street Journal. 6 July 2017.
  21. ↑ "QVC buying longtime rival Home Shopping Network in deal valued at $2.1 billion" (Press release). CNBC. 6 July 2017.
  22. ↑ Isidore, Chris (6 Jul 2017). "QVC buying rival Home Shopping Network". CNN Money. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  23. ↑ Bond, Shannon; Kwan Yuk, Pan (July 6, 2017). "Liberty to combine QVC and HSN in $2.1bn deal". Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  24. ↑ "Liberty Interactive to Change Name to Qurate Retail Group". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
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