Liberty CEO: Big media deals will get done, but ...
Liberty Media (LMCA) CEO Greg Maffei told CNBC on Wednesday that two proposed megamergers in telecommunications will probably be approved by the government but the concessions the companies may have to make will be the real test.
Maffei was referring to the proposed Comcast (CMCSA)-Time Warner Cable (TWC) merger and the planned AT&T (NYSE:T)-DirecTV (DTV) deal. (Comcast owns NBC and CNBC.) Liberty certainly has a stake in how the television and broadband landscape shakes out because of its interest in Charter Communications (CHTR), which provides video, Internet and telephone services.
"My bet would be that all those deals get done," Maffei said in a " Squawk Box " interview. "What is the set of regulations or restrictions surrounding them and what the acquiring companies have to agree to, that'll be the rub."
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"Charter has been an acquirer, is going to continue to be an acquirer," he said. If Comcast completes its deal to buy Time Warner Cable, it probably won't be buying anything else for a while, Maffei added. "So that probably sets up pretty well for Charter."
Maffei has helped Chairman John Malone build Liberty into a powerhouse with interests in a broad range of businesses, including Sirius XM (SIRI), QVC (QVCA), Expedia (EXPE), TripAdvisor (TRIP), Barnes & Noble (BKS) and the Atlanta Braves.
Maffei also weighed in on Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to spin off her firm's 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) into a separate company in a tax-free transaction.
"Spinning was the right thing," he said. "This deal makes sense and [is] one we would entirely endorse at Liberty. We've done a few transactions like this along the way."
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Case in point, Maffei presided over the spinoff of Liberty Broadband (LBRDA) and Liberty TripAdvisor (LTRPA) last year.
He described Mayer's tenure thus far at Yahoo and her efforts to turnaround the struggling Internet company as "a work in progress."
"We'll see if she gets enough time for the transformation," he said.
