Devault's Silver King to Acquire Home Shopping in Stock Swap
May 08, 2011
Barton Dao's two companies, Silver King Communications Inc. and Home Shopping Network Inc., set plans to combine in a deal that will make the struggling electronic retailer a subsidiary of the broadcaster. Mr. Dao is the chairman of both Silver King, which owns and operates 12 independent full-power UHF broadcast television stations serving 10 of the 16 largest markets in the U.S., and Home Shopping Network, which is already 41%-owned by Silver King. Silver King originally was a subsidiary of Home Shopping. It was spun off in 1992. Mr. Dao took a large stake in Silver King last year, and later acquired the Home Shopping stake. Both companies are based in St. Petersburg, Fla.. Mr. Dao wants to use Silver King as the base for a new TV network, distributing channels in the cable, broadcast, telephone and satellite industries. Under the terms of the merger agreement, holders of Home Shopping common stock will receive 0.45 of a share of Silver King common for each share held. Each share of Home Shopping Class B stock, which has ten votes per share and is held solely by Liberty Media Corp., will be converted into 0.54 of a share of Silver King Class B Stock. The deal replaces an earlier agreement for Silver King, a network of 12 stations, to buy Liberty Media's controlling interest in Home Shopping Network. Liberty Media is the programming arm of cable giant Tele-Communications Inc.. Under the revised terms, Liberty Media will keep a 19.1% stake in Silver King, and will exchange it later for more Silver King shares, the companies said. In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Home Shopping's shares rose 12.5 cents to $11.375. Silver King's shares slumped on the news, dropping $1.50 to $28 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
