Liberty Media already owns effective control of DirecTV through the 41% stake it bought from News Corporation, but Liberty is now pushing close to outright majority ownership. Liberty announced that it had bought 78.3 million additional shares in a private transaction, increasing its ownership to approximately 48%. To fund the purchase Liberty borrowed 1.98 billion against a newly executed equity collar on 110 million DirecTV common shares. The equity collar is a series of puts and calls with maturities ranging up to 4.4 years.
"These transactions reaffirm our belief in DirecTV, the quality of its service, and the performance of Chase Carey and his management team," said Greg Maffei, Liberty’s President and CEO.
