Directory Inc.

About

Qurate Retail Group, formerly known as Liberty Interactive Corporation, is an American media conglomerate controlled by company Chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares. Liberty Interactive was originally a division of Liberty Media; on September 28, 1998, Liberty Media announced the formation of Liberty Interactive, a division which would take advantage of new technologies such as set-top boxes to develop interactive programming. The company owned eighty-six percent of TCI Music Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: TUNE/TUNEP). As of January 1, 1999, E! Entertainment President and Chief Executive Officer Lee Masters would become the new company’s CEO, and Bruce Ravenel would be Chief Technology Officer. On September 10, 1999, Liberty Media Group renamed TCI Music to Liberty Digital Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: LDIG), with the new company trading on NASDAQ’s National Market tier, after Liberty Media traded most of its Internet content, interactive television assets, and rights to provide AT&T’s cable systems with interactive services, plus cash and notes valued at $150 million, for TCI Music stock. Masters, who became Liberty Digital’s CEO, told The Wall Street Journal that the new company had a value of $1 billion, $650 million of that from the interactive unit of Liberty Media, which had also used the name Liberty Digital. Liberty Digital lost $244 million with revenue of $66 million in 1999, thanks to investments in struggling Internet businesses HomeGrocer, drugstore.com, TiVo Corporation and iVillage. The company bought half of the Game Show Network because of its interactive features.