Greg Maffei, Liberty Media’s president and CEO, will step down at the end of this year, with John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, stepping in as the interim CEO.
Following the expiration of his contract in 2024, Maffei will take on a role as senior adviser starting January 1, 2025, to support the management transition.
“On behalf of the Liberty Media board, I’d like to thank Greg for his leadership, creativity and dedication,” Malone said. “Since joining in 2005, Greg has been at the forefront of the exciting evolution in the lifecycle of Liberty. He has grown our asset base and made the company better and more valuable for shareholders, along the way overseeing as many as five separate public companies simultaneously.”
Liberty Broadband Acquisition
Charter Communications and Liberty Broadband Corporation have agreed on an all-stock transaction, with Charter acquiring Liberty Broadband, expected to close mid-2027. Liberty Broadband's holdings primarily include a 26% stake in Charter and the Alaskan telecom subsidiary GCI. As part of the agreement, Liberty Broadband will divest GCI.
Following the announcement, investor rights law firm Halper Sadeh launched an investigation to assess whether the deal is fair to Liberty Broadband shareholders, who will receive 0.236 Charter shares for each Liberty share. The investigation will examine whether Liberty Broadband’s board met its fiduciary duties, complied with federal securities laws, and sought the best possible terms for shareholders, ensuring they received full disclosure to assess the merger.
Liberty Live Spin Off
Liberty Media has also announced plans to spin off the Liberty Live Group, which holds a 30% stake in Live Nation Entertainment. Expected to be completed in the second half of 2025, Liberty Media and the newly formed Liberty Live will operate as independent, publicly-traded companies.
Liberty Live will retain approximately 69.6 million shares of Live Nation, along with sports and entertainment hospitality company Quint and other private assets currently attributed to the Liberty Live Group.
With the sale of Liberty Broadband to Charter and Liberty Media’s planned spin-off of Liberty Live, “all the Liberty acquisitions completed during my tenure are now structured to provide shareholders with more direct ownership in their upside,” commented Maffei.
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