Liberty Media buys DirecTV shares from Bank of America

April 18, 2008 4:32 pm admin News

Bank of America sold Liberty Media Corp. nearly $2 billion worth of shares in DirecTV Group Inc., taking the media conglomerate up on its offer to provide the bank stock options in exchange for increasing Liberty’s stake in the satellite television company.

The April 2 financial transaction, detailed in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaves Liberty Media owning 548.7 million shares, nearly 48 percent, of El Segundo-based DirecTV. Englewood-based Liberty (NASDAQ: LCAPA, LCAPB) acquired a controlling 41 percent stake in DirecTV earlier this year from News Corp.

Liberty acquired the additional 73.8 million shares from Bank of America at a value of $25.25 per-share in return for committing buy and sell options to the bank on 110 million of DirecTV’s shares.

The arrangement could net Bank of America between $2.4 billion and $3.4 billion, depending on the price of the “>DirecTV shares (NASDAQ: DTV) when the options expire over the course of three years starting in 2009.