Qurate Retail Group

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

Qurate Retail, Inc.
FormerlyLiberty Interactive Corporation (1998–2018)
TypePublic
IndustryMedia holding company
PredecessorLiberty Media
Founded1998
HeadquartersDouglas County, Colorado, U.S.[1]
Key people
John C. Malone (Chairman)
Greg Maffei (President and CEO)
Revenue US$ 10.219 billion (2016)[2]
US$1.011 billion (2016)[2]
US$473 million (2016)[2]
Total assets US$14.357 billion (2016)[2]
Total equity US$4.860 billion (2016)[2]
OwnerLiberty Media[3]
Number of employees
28,255[4] (2017)
DivisionsList of divisions
Websitequrateretailgroup.com

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.[5]

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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8]

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.[9]

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,[10] a move that was completed in 2005.[11]

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.[12][13]

In 2010, Liberty Media announced that it would spin off Liberty Starz and Liberty Capital and keep Liberty Interactive.[14][15]

In October 2014, Liberty Interactive spun off BuySeasons and its stake in TripAdvisor into a new company, Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings.[16]

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.[17]

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.[18]

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.[19]

In April 2017, Liberty Interactive announced it would acquire Alaskan cable company GCI.[20] 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.[21][22][23]

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, Cornerstone Brands, and Zulily.[24]

On March 1, 2018, Liberty Interactive Corporation announced that it will rename itself to Qurate Retail Group.[25]

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. "Qurate Retail Group". Google Finance.
  3. Williams, Christopher (2015-11-22). "John Malone: the mystery method behind a media empire". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  4. "Qurate Retail". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  5. "Liberty Media Forms Interactive Venture (Press release)". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  6. "TCI Music and Liberty Media Complete Transaction (Press release)". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  7. "Liberty Media, TCI Form Internet Group – InternetNews". www.internetnews.com. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
  8. Doan, Amy (August 26, 2000). "Liberty Is Sweet on Interactive TV". Forbes. Retrieved March 5, 2009.
  9. "TCI Satellite Entertainment, Inc. Announces Investment By Liberty Media Corporation and Formation of Joint Venture (Press release)". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  10. Reuters (21 December 2004). "Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive to Spin Off Expedia". FOX News. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  11. "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.
  12. Gershberg, Michele (5 November 2007). "IAC to spin off four units, shares up". Reuters. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  13. Fabrikant, Geraldine (6 November 2007). "IAC/InterActive to Split Into 5 Companies". New York Times. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  14. Liberty Media Will Spin Off Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz
  15. company history – Liberty Media
  16. "Liberty Interactive files to spin off TripAdvisor stake". Reuters. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  17. "Liberty Interactive to spin off CommerceHub, Liberty Expedia". Reuters. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  18. FTD to buy Liberty Interactive's floral-gift business for $430M
  19. "Liberty Interactive splits into cable shopping, e-commerce groups" (Press release). Reuters. 6 October 2014.
  20. "Liberty Interactive Buys GCI of Alaska". Telecompetitor. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  21. "QVC to Acquire Rival HSN for More Than $2 Billion". Wall Street Journal. 6 July 2017.
  22. "QVC buying longtime rival Home Shopping Network in deal valued at $2.1 billion". CNBC. 6 July 2017.
  23. Isidore, Chris (6 Jul 2017). "QVC buying rival Home Shopping Network". CNN Money. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  24. 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.
  25. "Liberty Interactive to Change Name to Qurate Retail Group". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
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