By Josh Beckerman
Liberty Media Corp. Chief Executive Greg Maffei reached an
agreement to remain at the helm of the media company through 2019,
just days before his prior contract was set to expire.
Liberty has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy since Mr.
Maffei took the helm at the start of 2006. He said in a January
interview with The Wall Street Journal that "we need to look at the
marketplace, trying to look for durable assets, take advantage of
cheap financing and think about trying to build different kinds of
value."
But Mr. Maffei played a big role in Liberty's involvement with
part-owned cable affiliate Charter Communications Inc. in its
failed bid to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., which was thwarted by
Comcast Corp. And his contract extension hadn't been considered a
guarantee.
Liberty Media bought a big stake in Charter last year and spun
off that interest into Liberty Broadband, a new publicly traded
company. Charter has agreed to buy subscribers from Comcast after
its pending deal with Time Warner Cable closes. Liberty Broadband
holds a minority stake in TWC.
"We are extremely pleased that Greg will continue in his
leadership role for another five years," Chairman John Malone said
in a statement. Mr. Maffei will continue as president and CEO of
Liberty Interactive as well.
His previous contract is set to end Wednesday.
A new compensation agreement calls for Mr. Maffei to receive an
annual base salary of $960,750, increasing annually by 5%, and an
annual target cash bonus equal to 250% of the applicable year's
base salary. For 2013, Mr. Maffei received a salary of $868,219 and
total compensation of $3.57 million, made up mostly of incentive
plan compensation.
He was previously Microsoft Corp.'s finance chief and also did a
brief stint at Oracle Corp.
Liberty Media's holdings include a majority stake in SiriusXM
Holdings Inc. and full ownership of the entity that owns the
Atlanta Braves. Its minority investments include Live Nation
Entertainment Inc.
Liberty Interactive has many home-shopping and e-commerce
holdings including QVC Inc., CommerceHub and Evite.
In November, Liberty Media said third-quarter revenue and
operating earnings improved, reflecting strong SiriusXM
results.
Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
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