Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Discontinued Operations

v2.4.0.6
Discontinued Operations
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Discontinued Operations [Abstract]  
Discontinued Operations
Discontinued Operations
Split-Off of Liberty Media Corporation
Prior to the LMC Split-Off (as defined below), Liberty's equity was structured into three separate tracking stocks. A tracking stock is a type of common stock that the issuing company intends to reflect or "track" the economic performance of a particular business or "group," rather than the economic performance of the company as a whole. Liberty had three tracking stocks, Liberty Interactive common stock, Liberty Starz common stock and Liberty Capital common stock, which were intended to track and reflect the economic performance of the separate businesses, assets and liabilities attributed to each group. These attributed businesses, assets and liabilities were not separate legal entities and therefore could not own assets, issue securities or enter into legally binding agreements. Holders of the tracking stocks did not have direct claim to the group's stock or assets and were not represented by separate boards of directors.
On September 23, 2011, Liberty completed the split-off of a wholly owned subsidiary, Liberty Media Corporation ("LMC") (formerly known as Liberty CapStarz, Inc. and prior thereto known as Liberty Splitco, Inc.) (the "LMC Split-Off"). At the time of the LMC Split-Off, LMC owned all the assets, businesses and liabilities previously attributed to the Capital and Starz tracking stock groups. The LMC Split-Off was effected by means of a redemption of all of the Liberty Capital common stock and Liberty Starz common stock of Liberty in exchange for the common stock of LMC. This transaction has been accounted for at historical cost due to the pro rata nature of the distribution.
Following the LMC Split-Off, Liberty and LMC operate as separate, publicly traded companies, and neither has any stock ownership, beneficial or otherwise, in the other. In connection with the LMC Split-Off, Liberty and LMC entered into certain agreements in order to govern certain of the ongoing relationships between the two companies after the LMC Split-Off and to provide for an orderly transition. These agreements include a Reorganization Agreement, a Services Agreement, a Facilities Sharing Agreement and a Tax Sharing Agreement.
The Tax Sharing Agreement provides for the allocation and indemnification of tax liabilities and benefits between Liberty and LMC and other agreements related to tax matters. Liberty is party to on-going discussions with the IRS under the Compliance Assurance Process audit program. The IRS may propose adjustments that relate to tax attributes allocated to and income allocable to LMC in the LMC Split-Off. Any potential outcome associated with any proposed adjustments would be covered by the Tax Sharing Agreement and are not expected to have any impact on Liberty's financial position. Pursuant to the Services Agreement, LMC will provide Liberty with general and administrative services including legal, tax, accounting, treasury and investor relations support. Liberty will reimburse LMC for direct, out-of-pocket expenses incurred by LMC in providing these services and for Liberty's allocable portion of costs associated with any shared services or personnel based on an estimated percentage of time spent providing services to Liberty. Under the Facilities Sharing Agreement, Liberty will share office space with LMC and related amenities at LMC's corporate headquarters. Under theses various agreements approximately $2 million of these allocated expenses were reimbursable from Liberty to LMC since the LMC Split-Off date.
The consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes of Liberty have been prepared to reflect LMC as discontinued operations. Accordingly, the assets and liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and cash flows of the businesses, assets and liabilities owned by LMC at the time of LMC Split-Off (for periods prior to the LMC Split-Off) have been excluded from the respective captions in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets, statements of operations, comprehensive earnings and cash flows in such consolidated financial statements.
Certain combined financial information for LMC, which is included in earnings (loss) from discontinued operations, is as follows:
 
Years ended December 31,
 
2011
 
2010
 
2009
 
amounts in millions
Revenue
$
2,008

 
2,050

 
1,853

Earnings (loss) before income taxes
$
628

 
594

 
703

A summary of certain asset and liability amounts for LMC as of the respective dates are as follows:
 
September 23, 2011
 
December 31, 2010
 
amounts in millions
Assets
 
 
 
Cash and cash equivalents
$
2,075

 
1,826

Investments in available-for-sale securities and other cost investments
$
2,847

 
3,441

 
 
 
 
Liabilities
 
 
 
Financial instruments
$
1,125

 
1,230

Deferred income tax liabilities
$
428

 
214

Debt
$
791

 
855


Split-Off of LEI
On November 19, 2009, Liberty completed its split-off (the "LEI Split-Off") of its wholly owned subsidiary, Liberty Entertainment, Inc. ("LEI"), and the business combination transaction among Liberty, LEI and the DIRECTV Group, Inc. ("DIRECTV") (the "DTV Business Combination"). LEI held Liberty's 57% interest in DIRECTV (which had a carrying value of $13,475 million million at the time of the LEI Split-Off), a wholly owned subsidiary Liberty Sports Holdings, LLC, 65% interest in Game Show Network, LLC and approximately $120 million in cash and cash equivalents, and approximately $2 billion of indebtedness. All of the businesses, assets and liabilities that were attributed to the Entertainment Group and were not held by LEI have remained with Liberty and continue to be attributed to the Entertainment Group, which Liberty redesignated as the Starz Group.

Immediately following the LEI Split-Off, Liberty, LEI and DIRECTV completed the DTV Business Combination, and each of LEI and DIRECTV became wholly owned subsidiaries of a new public holding company ("Holdings"), and LEI repaid loans to Liberty in the amount of $226 million. Pursuant to the DTV Business Combination, (i) John C. Malone, Chairman of the boards of Liberty Media, LEI and DIRECTV, and certain related persons (collectively, "the Malones") contributed each of their shares of LEI Series B common stock to Holdings for 1.1113 shares of Holdings Class B common stock (with payment of cash in lieu of any fractional shares), (ii) LEI merged with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Holdings, and each share of LEI common stock (other than shares of LEI Series B common stock held by the Malones) was exchanged for 1.1113 shares of Holdings Class A common stock (with payment of cash in lieu of any fractional shares), and (iii) DIRECTV merged with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Holdings, and each share of DIRECTV common stock was exchanged for one share of Holdings Class A common stock.

Because the LEI Split-Off was conditioned on, among other matters, satisfaction and waiver of all conditions to the DTV Business Combination, the LEI Split-Off and the DTV Business Combination have been recorded at fair value, and Liberty recognized an approximate $5.9 billion gain on the transaction. Such gain is included in earnings from discontinued operations in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations. Due to the tax-free nature of the LEI Split-Off and the DTV Business Combination, no taxes were recorded on the gain for financial statement purposes.
  
Certain combined statement of operations information for LEI, which is included in earnings from discontinued operations, is as follows:
 
Year ended December 31, 2009
 
amounts in millions
Revenue
$
240

Earnings before income taxes (1)
$
5,770

(1)    Includes the gain from the LEI Split-Off/DTV Business Combination in 2009.

Earnings per share impact of discontinued operations

The combined impact from discontinued operations, discussed above, is as follows:
 
 
Years ended December 31,
 
 
2011
 
2010
 
2009
Basic earnings (losses) from discontinued operations attributable to Liberty shareholders per common share (note 2):
 
 
 
Series A and Series B Liberty Capital common stock
 
$
2.48

 
8.74

 
5.03

Series A and Series B Liberty Starz common stock
 
$
3.47

 
4.12

 
13.13

Series A and Series B Liberty Interactive common stock
 
$
—

 
0.19

 
(0.04
)
Diluted earnings (losses) from discontinued operations attributable to Liberty shareholders per common share (note 2):
 
 
 
 
 
 
Series A and Series B Liberty Capital common stock
 
$
2.42

 
8.46

 
4.98

Series A and Series B Liberty Starz common stock
 
$
3.34

 
3.96

 
13.04

Series A and Series B Liberty Interactive common stock
 
$
—

 
0.18

 
(0.04
)

Certain assets and liabilities not owned by Liberty Interactive at the time of LMC Split-Off were attributed to the Liberty Interactive tracking stock in prior periods and certain assets and liabilities not owned by LMC at the time of the LMC Split-Off were attributed to the Liberty Capital tracking stock in prior periods. These assets and liabilities, and their resulting impacts on the attributed statement of operations, were either included or excluded from discontinued operations based on which entity owned the assets at time of split-off. This results in Liberty Interactive common stock participating in the discontinued operations for the amount attributable to Liberty Interactive common stock for those assets and liabilities it did not own at the time of the LMC Split-Off, in periods prior to the LMC Split-Off. Additionally, certain prior period EPS calculations for Liberty Capital common stock include continuing operations due to the attribution of certain debt and equity instruments in those periods to the Liberty Capital group that remained with Liberty after the LMC Split-Off as a result of the change in attribution of those assets and liabilities prior to the LMC Split-Off.