Advanced Television

Malone reduces DirecTV stake

April 8, 2010

DirecTV's single largest shareholder and its board chairman, is divesting most of his voting shares in the satellite television company. John Malone currently owns about 24.3 per cent of the company's voting shares, in a share exchange executed this week, his voting power in DirecTV will drop to 3 per cent. He will receive around $162 million in the transaction. DirecTV said Malone and two other Liberty executives would also resign from its board.

“I believe that I'm leaving DirecTV in great shape to take on the competitive challenges that it is facing and will face in the future,” Malone said. DirecTV, the nation's biggest satellite TV service, has about 18 million subscribers in the United States. The company added almost one million subscribers last year.

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