John Malone has never been afraid to shake up his businesses. The media and telecom mogul owns a slew of companies and stakes in companies, spanning Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications to Live Nation and Formula 1.
But the moves he has made this week, to dramatically simplify his holdings into separate stocks, merge Charter and Liberty Broadband, and see the exit of longtime CEO Greg Maffei with Malone taking the helm on an interim basis, is far more than a typical management change.
Malone raised eyebrows Thursday in a live interview on CNBC, where he said quite openly that his role as CEO of Liberty Media would be “transitional.”
“At 83 years old, going on 84, I am unlikely to be a highly active CEO,” he told CNBC’s David Faber. Rather, he is focused on finding an operational CEO that can run the holding company, and restructuring the board of Liberty Media to better focus the company on Formula 1.
But the mogul, so closely tied to the media business and still a major investor in Warner Bros. Discovery, suggested that the “next generation” Liberty may pursue a different path.
“I am thinking that the Liberty Media team, with a little bit of my capital perhaps, and some innovation, can put together the next-gen Liberty. It may not be in the media business,” Malone said.
Speaking via video to investors assembled in New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center, Malone elaborated on his plans for the new Liberty, which he noted will not only have focus, but a clean balance sheet.
“It is the first clean, pure-play that our shareholders have had in all these years. I am most excited about the quality of the brand, and how that brand can be developed,” he said, adding that leaning into F1 is key. “I think our lesson is, now that we have a vehicle, in a specific defined area, we will look for ways to expand within that. I see additional racing investment, as it becomes available, exploiting the brand, merchandising, and continuing to develop the premium nature of the sport.”
Liberty already has a deal to acquire MotoGP, the motorcycle racing circuit, and his comments suggested that if other racing opportunities arise, the new Liberty will be a buyer.
And when pressed on what the incoming Trump administration will mean for M&A, he predicted that the media business will be one that is affected quickly.
“I do believe that an easier regulatory environment would lead to faster consolidation of the creators of content, of entertainment content,” Malone said. “Sports content, I think, is doing quite well.”
And he added that he was hopeful that telecom companies will be able to do deals as well, acknowledging the increasingly tough competition from wireless providers and new companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink.
“I think governments, regulators, would be prudent to take into account a couple of things: Even Elon has the globe, wireless companies have national footprints. I think that Charter should be allowed to merge with Comcast or Cox or T-Mobile or anybody,” Malone said. “I think tying an industry’s hands behind its back, and letting big tech run wild in any direction they choose to run in is inappropriate.”
And while Liberty may or may not be in the media business in the future, Malone predicted that all media, eventually, will be streamed:
“The broadcasters will morph into streamers, okay? And I think if you look at any strategies of important programming, you’re going to see it’s going to be hybrid initially, and eventually it’ll be streamed. It may be curated streamed, but it’ll be streamed,” Malone said. “Obviously sports investment right now is the best because it works really well across both platforms, and it is going to be the essential reason why broadcasting lives longer than it otherwise would. But I’m afraid of the damage will be done to localism, as important programming becomes national or global and streamed.”
