John Malone has never been afraid to shake up his business. The media and communications mogul owns numerous companies and stakes in them, from Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications to Live Nation and F1.
But the moves he made this week meant drastically simplifying his holdings, splitting them into individual stocks, merging Charter and Liberty Broadband, and easing longtime CEO Greg Maffei and appointing Malone as an interim CEO. This goes far beyond the scope of a typical management team. change.
Malone raised some eyebrows Thursday during a live interview on CNBC when he said quite publicly that his role as CEO of Liberty Media would be a “transitional period.”
“At 83 years old, 84 years old, it’s unlikely that I would be a very active CEO,” he told CNBC’s David Faber. Rather, he is focused on finding a CEO who can run the holding company and restructuring Liberty Media’s board to focus the company more on F1.
But the mogul, who has close ties to the media business and remains a major investor in Warner Bros. Discovery, hinted that the “next generation” Liberty could take a different path.
“I think the Liberty Media team, perhaps with a little bit of my money and innovation, can build the next generation of Liberty. It might not be a media business,” Malone said. said.
Mr. Malone spoke via video to investors gathered at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, detailing his plans for the new Liberty, noting that it will not only be focused but also have a clean balance sheet.
“This is the first clean, pure play for our shareholders in years. We are most excited about the quality of the brand and how it will develop,” he said. He added that the key is to lean into “I think the lesson for us is that now that we have a vehicle in a certain defined area, we look for ways to expand within that area. We believe that as we continue to develop our premium properties, additional investment will be made once racing becomes possible.”
Liberty already has a deal in place to buy motorcycle racing circuit MotoGP, but his comments suggested the new Liberty would be a buyer if other racing opportunities arise.
When asked what the incoming Trump administration would mean for M&A, he predicted that the media business would be affected immediately.
“We believe that the loosening of the regulatory environment will accelerate the consolidation of content and entertainment content creators,” Malone said. “I think sports content is doing quite well.”
He also acknowledged the growing competition from wireless providers and startups like Elon Musk’s Starlink, and expressed hope that carriers might be able to do the same. He added that there is.
“I think governments and regulators would be wise to consider a few things: Even Elon has a world, wireless companies have national footprints. I think they should be allowed to merge with Cast, Cox, T-Mobile or some other company,” Malone said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to tie the industry’s hands behind its back and allow big technology companies to run wild in any direction they want.”
And while it’s unclear whether Liberty will be in the media business in the future, Malone predicted that eventually all media will be streamed.
“Distributors are going to turn into streamers, right? And if you look at the strategy for key programming, you’ll see that first it’s going to be hybrid, and eventually it’s going to be streaming. Maybe, but it will be streamed,” Malone said. “Obviously, the investment in sports at the moment is working very well on both platforms, and that’s going to be the fundamental reason why the broadcasts have longer longevity than they would have otherwise. But the important programs are I worry that as it becomes more nationally and globally distributed, it will damage localism.”
