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US: Liberty Media wants bigger stake in iHeartMedia

By  |  December 16, 2019

An affiliate of John Malone’s Liberty Media is seeking Justice Department permission to buy a larger piece of iHeartMedia. According to The Wall Street Journal, a deal that would put the nation’s largest radio broadcaster under the same corporate umbrella as the leading concert promoter and satellite-radio giant SiriusXM.

Liberty owns a 4.8% stake in iHeart through Liberty SiriusXM Group; the deal now under consideration could give it control or outright ownership of the broadcaster, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The government is considering the request, the people said, with one of them cautioning that Liberty hasn’t decided what kind of transaction, if any, it would proceed with should it receive permission.

Last year, Liberty orchestrated Sirius’s purchase of internet-radio company Pandora Media in which it also held a controlling stake, for US$3 billion, another move intended to compete more effectively against Spotify Technology and other on-demand music-streaming services.