Court TV Sale Possible in 2006, Liberty’s Carleton Says
Court TV could be sold as soon as next year if an option is exercised, Liberty Senior Vp Mark Carleton said. A put or call option in 2006 is “perpetually open after that,” he told a Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment investor conference. Carleton said he doesn’t know whether Liberty has held talks “with our partners on that asset.” The media investment firm -- itself transitioning from owning small media stakes to a focus on strategic investments -- owns 50% of the network that broadcasts criminal trials and related programming. Time Warner owns the rest.
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Carleton praised the network, but analysts called Time Warner the likeliest buyer. Liberty’s stake in Court TV is worth about $650 million, said Janco Partners cable analyst Matthew Harrigan and Jefferies’ Rob Routh. Executive at Court TV “obviously have done a hell of a job with that business, and it’s one we quite like,” Carleton said at a Pasadena, Cal., investor meeting. Yet analysts we spoke with threw cold water on speculation Liberty would buy the part it doesn’t own. “The conventional wisdom, despite what Mark Carleton inferred, is that Time Warner will end up with the asset,” Harrigan said. Time Warner didn’t comment by our deadline.
Court TV fits well with Time Warner’s Turner networks, which include CNN, analysts said. Court TV’s focus on news, though crime-oriented, would trim costs, analysts said. “It seems like Time Warner could probably manage it more cost effectively within the context of Turner networks,” said Harrigan. He urges buying shares of Liberty Media and doesn’t own them. Time Warner could spur a transaction by exercising its call option, Jefferies analyst Routh said. To buy the asset in a transaction such as Carleton described, Liberty would need to offer more than Time Warner, he said. “Time Warner was always proud of it, and I certainly wouldn’t argue that it wouldn’t make sense along with CNN,” said media observer and long-time money manager Uri Landesman of Court TV. “The big media companies have not been looking to shed these kinds of cable networks.”