John Malone, Barry Diller settle feud
Liberty Media drops appeal on March ruling
Liberty is dropping an appeal it filed disputing a March ruling by a Delaware judge, who sided with IAC head Barry Diller on the breakup plans.
The weeklong trial featured both Diller and Liberty's John Malone on the stand and shed light on the billionaire media barons' business methods and personalities.
Malone was infuriated by Diller's plan to break IAC/InterActiveCorp into five companies because it will cut his voting rights in half by virtue of eliminating a second class of shares. Liberty owns about 30% of IAC, but because of the voting structure, its voting rights are worth 62%. Malone and Diller agreed on a proxy more than a decade ago that allows Diller to essentially vote Liberty's shares.
During the trial and in an incendiary Wall Street Journal article last fall, Malone lambasted Diller's stewardship of IAC, contending that the company share price had lagged major indices.
In the settlement announced Tuesday, Malone and Diller agreed on various arrangements regarding operations of the spun-off companies. These include Liberty's right to board representation at each company and a limitation on Liberty's ability to raise its ownership stakes.
IAC moved ahead with the breakups through initial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
