(12) Stockholders' Equity

Preferred Stock

Liberty's preferred stock is issuable, from time to time, with such designations, preferences and relative participating, optional or other rights, qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof, as shall be stated and expressed in a resolution or resolutions providing for the issue of such preferred stock adopted by Liberty's Board of Directors.  As of December 31, 2014, no shares of preferred stock were issued.

Common Stock

Series A Liberty Interactive and Liberty Ventures common stock has one vote per share, and Series B Liberty Interactive and Liberty Ventures common stock has ten votes per share.  Each share of the Series B common stock is exchangeable at the option of the holder for one share of Series A common stock of the same group.  The Series A and Series B common stock participate on an equal basis with respect to dividends and distributions.

As of December 31, 2014, Liberty reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding stock options approximately 24.9 million shares of Series A Liberty Interactive common stock and approximately 1.0 million shares of Series B Liberty Interactive common stock. As of December 31, 2014, Liberty reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding stock options approximately 4.0 million shares of Series A Liberty Ventures common stock and approximately 1.5 million shares of Series B Liberty Ventures common stock.

In addition to the Series A and Series B Liberty Interactive and Ventures common stock there are 4 billion  and 200 million shares of Series C Liberty Interactive and Ventures common stock authorized for issuance, respectively. As of December 31, 2014, no shares of any Series C Liberty Interactive and Ventures common stock were issued or outstanding.

As discussed in note 2, on February 27, 2014, Liberty’s board approved a two for one stock split of Series A and Series B Liberty Ventures common stock, to be effected by means of a dividend. The stock split was done in order to bring Liberty into compliance with a Nasdaq listing requirement regarding the minimum number of publicly held shares of the Series B Liberty Ventures common stock. In the stock split, a dividend was paid on April 11, 2014 to holders of Series A and Series B Liberty Ventures common stock of one share of Series A or Series B Liberty Ventures common stock for each share of Series A or Series B Liberty Ventures common stock, respectively, held by them as of 5:00 pm, New York City time, on April 4, 2014. The stock split has been recorded retroactively for all periods presented for comparability purposes.

Additionally, as discussed in note 2, on October 3, 2014, Liberty attributed from the QVC Group to the Ventures Group its Digital Commerce companies.  Holders of Liberty Interactive common shares received 0.14217 shares of Liberty Ventures common shares for each share of Liberty Interactive common shares held, as of the record date.  The shares issued and subsequently distributed to Liberty Interactive common stock shareholders in the form of a dividend did not require retroactive treatment. 

Purchases of Common Stock

During the year ended December 31, 2012 the Company repurchased 44,668,431 shares of Series A Liberty Interactive common stock for aggregate cash consideration of $815 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2013 the Company repurchased 46,305,637 shares of Series A Liberty Interactive common stock for aggregate cash consideration of $1,089 million.

During the year ended December 31, 2014 the Company repurchased 27,356,993 shares of Series A Liberty Interactive common stock for aggregate cash consideration of $785 million.

All of the foregoing shares were repurchased pursuant to a previously announced share repurchase program and have been retired and returned to the status of authorized and available for issuance.

During 2012, in connection with the creation of the Liberty Ventures tracking stock, the Company distributed subscription rights to purchase shares of Series A Liberty Ventures common stock (each, a “Series A Right”). Each whole Series A Right entitled its holder to subscribe, at a per share subscription price of $35.99, for one share of Series A Liberty Ventures common stock. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company issued approximately 9 million shares in connection with the rights offering and raised approximately $328 million of cash.