Liberty Media said it has authorized its board of directors to split the company into three tracking stocks, separating its media, sports and satellite radio holdings.
The three trackers would be Liberty Braves Group, including its interests in the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team; Liberty Sirius Group, containing its holdings in satellite radio giant XM Sirius Satellite Radio, and Liberty Media Group, including Live Nation and its minority interests in media companies Viacom and Time Warner.
Tracking stocks are a common vehicle for Liberty (which is holding an investor gathering in New York later Thursday) to unlock the value of its holdings. In the past it has created trackers for its holdings in QVC Group, its Latin American cable holdings (LiLAC Group) and its e-commerce holdings (Liberty Commerce).
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