Liberty Media Corporation CEO Greg Maffei will step down from his role at the end of 2024.
John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, will assume the role of interim CEO. Maffei will step down at the expiration of his contract at year-end and will serve as a senior advisor starting Jan. 1 to support the management transition.
Maffei steps down as he notes that all the acquisitions made under his tenure are now in new structures. On Wedneesday, the company said it plans to split off the Liberty Live Group, which would be comprised of 69.6 million shares of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. and Quint, among other assets. The split off would make Liberty Media, which would hold its subsidiaries Formula 1 and MotoGP, and Liberty Live, Inc. into separate publicly traded companies, and Liberty Media would no longer have a tracking stock structure.
The combination of the Sirius XM Holdings and the Liberty Sirius XM tracking stock group into one consolidated publicly traded company was completed in September.
“The almost 20 years I have spent at the helm of Liberty Media have been incredibly rewarding, stimulating and endlessly eventful. Following today’s announcements at Liberty Media and Liberty Broadband, all the Liberty acquisitions completed during my tenure are now in structures where shareholders can have more direct ownership in their upside,” Maffei stated.
“The corporate structure is optimized, and the portfolio companies are in strong positions with talented executive teams in place. While it’s never easy to leave an organization as dynamic as Liberty, I am confident that this is the right time,” the outgoing CEO said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working alongside and learning from John, our board, the management teams at Liberty and across the family of companies and our shareholders.”
Maffei will also continue to serve as chairman of Qurate Retail, Liberty TripAdvisor, Tripadvisor and SiriusXM and as a director of Charter Communications, Live Nation Entertainment and Zillow.
As he steps in, Malone said he plans to work “on rationalizing the structural discounts at Liberty Media” as well as finding new opportunities for “shareholder value creation.”
“On behalf of the Liberty Media board, I’d like to thank Greg for his leadership, creativity and dedication,” Malone said. “Since joining in 2005, Greg has been at the forefront of the exciting evolution in the lifecycle of Liberty. He has grown our asset base and made the company better and more valuable for shareholders, along the way overseeing as many as five separate public companies simultaneously. Especially following today’s transaction announcements, our company is simpler and more focused than ever before, which is a perfect capstone for Greg’s accomplished career at Liberty. I wish Greg continued success as he embarks on his next chapter and appreciate his continued support as an Advisor.”