Liberty Global Archive

5

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) Liberty Capital (NASDAQ:LCAPA, LCAPB) and Worldspace Revisited

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In the weeks since the final bankruptcy sale and approval of Worldspace assets to Noah Samara; this time through Yazmi LLC, one thing is abundantly clear.  The plight of all the assets of Worldspace and SATCO is as yet unknown and still awaiting a final outcome.  Court documents prior to final sale stated that the consideration to be received from Yazmi in the sale purchase agreement would not be sufficient to pay Liberty Satellite Radio and Liberty Satellite Radio Holdings in full.  The Debtors estimated that Liberty’s aggregate secured claims were in excess of $116 million dollars.  Under the settlement agreement, the Debtors were released from such claims and the corresponding liens, allowing the Debtors to distribute the proceeds of the sale to other creditors.  In exchange for that, the Debtors and the other Parties to the settlement agreement provided releases to Liberty, and Liberty received other consideration.  That “other consideration” was Liberty obtaining a return of $370,000 in funds which the debtors transferred to Liberty; that Liberty had loaned to support the WorldSpace Italia subsidiary.  When Liberty decided not to pursue a Liberty purchase agreement, the need for those funds evaporated. Liberty also received $250,000 of the Yazmi sale proceeds, which was 5% of the total and significantly less than Liberty would have gotten if its senior secured claims were still in effect.  The Debtors believe that the note from WorldSpace Italia that Liberty received is of little value; the Debtors also believe WorldSpace Italia cannot repay that note, and the Debtors themselves have limited resources with which to possibly pursue collection.  The Debtors were willing to relinquish their right to abandon their responsibilities and their assets to Liberty in exchange for Liberty’s relinquishment of much

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5

Liberty Pursuing Global Satellite Radio with Sirius XM Radio in the Mix

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As previously speculated in past articles, Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LCAPA, NASDAQ:LINTA) essentially confirmed they have plans in the works to take their satellite radio interests global recently.  Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei answered a question after his company’s 4th Quarter Conference Call regarding Worldspace (OTC: WRSPQ) and Liberty’s acquisition efforts aimed at Worldspace assets through Bankruptcy court.  Among his comments was a statement that Worldspace has L-Band spectrum licensing worldwide, and that they were looking for a creative way to monetize Sirius XM Radio,  converting their  shares in the company  is not an option they are likely to pursue at this time.  As a matter of fact, Mr. Maffei said that Board Chairman John Malone would be firmly against that option.

Looking at the broader picture, Liberty Media has an important connection in Europe through Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA, NASDAQ:LBTYB), which has dealt intensively with licensing and programming transmission regulations with many member countries of the European Union (EU).  With Worldspace having L-Band spectrum licensing globally, and both the XM infrastructure side of Sirius XM Radio and Worldspace having come from the same technologies, it’s not a big leap to speculate that the XM side of Sirius XM is a key part of the globalization planning.  Worldspace broadcasts in the 1467-1492 MHz frequency range of the “L” band, and Worldspace’s proprietary and patented technology is coincidentally used in each XM Radio receiver.  In fact, the Worldspace Global Content and Programming department used to provide approximately 10% of the original content music programming heard in America on XM Satellite Radio.

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2

Sirius XM Radio and Liberty Media Form a Cozy Relationship (NASDAQ:SIRI, NASDAQ:LCAPA)

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Liberty Media Seeks Bigger Stake in Live Nation

With the announced purchase of a larger percentage of Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) by Liberty (NASDAQ: LCAPA, NASDAQ:LINTA) as well as comments from Liberty CEO Greg Maffei regarding the combination of Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) and Live Nation , it appears that Liberty and Sirius XM are indeed going to enjoy a long and profitable relationship. Maffei did not speak to any known specifics of the future and the relationship, but he did show enthusiasm when speaking to it on CNBC.

Liberty has been very active recently with acquisitions as many of us already know. They should be closing imminently on the purchase of Worldspace (OTCBB: WRSPQ) assets through bankruptcy. The assets are apparently being acquired with some of Liberty’s stake in Sirius XM, more specifically, a percentage of their stake in XM holdings, through their Liberty Satellite LLC holding company.

Liberty Global another of John Malone’s companies (NSDQ: LBTYA, LBTYB) has also been busy getting its acquisition of Unitymedia (from Apollo and BC partners), a German Media and cable conglomerate, finalized, and also shedding its 37.8% position in Japanese cable company Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), for $4bn.

There can be no doubt that Liberty is indeed concentrating on Europe, the Caribbean and South America as areas of expansion outside the United States. The addition of Live Nation only enhances the situation. Live Nation has core business in producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists with a global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 16,000 concerts for 1,500 artists in 57 countries. The company sells over 45 million concert tickets a year. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry’s first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, additional information about the company can be found at http://www.livenation.com/investors.

With Sirius XM already having Effanel studios since 2005, even more synergies can be gained for all concerned parties between Liberty, Sirius XM and Live Nation. Of course, that is a future story that is yet to even begin. In fact it is only in its early infancy with the Liberty acquisition of a larger percentage of Live Nation not even 24 hours old. Still some healthy speculation based on known information is never a bad thing. Clearly, there is going to be much more value added to all three entities, Liberty, Sirius XM and Live Nation. Those who have the foresight to continue digging for information along that path may end up reaping very ripe and healthy fruit for their labor. The situation bears watching for sure, and I personally will be doing just that. As always, do your own due diligence and best of luck.

Disclosure: Long SIRI