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John Malone is stepping down as chair of his media and telecoms empire, marking the end of an era in which the “cable cowboy” reshaped both industries over the course of 50 years of dealmaking.
It will be announced as soon as Wednesday that Malone will step down as chair of Formula 1 owner Liberty Media and Liberty Global, the group behind telecoms operator Virgin Media O2, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Malone, 84, will continue to invest and manage his personal venture capital portfolio and retain his stake in the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the people said.
It is not yet known who will succeed Malone in either role. He remains the shareholder with the most voting rights in both Liberty Media and Liberty Global.
Liberty Global declined to comment and Liberty Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Malone, who made his name turning around US cable company TCI in the 1970s and steering it towards a $48bn sale to AT&T in 1999, is widely considered to be a godfather of modern broadband infrastructure.
He used his engineering background to push for network upgrades in the 1980s, allowing them to carry hundreds of cable TV channels, and then did so again to facilitate the rollout of high-speed internet.
The Liberty companies became holding groups for Malone’s extensive business interests across the tech, media and telecoms industries. The billionaire amassed significant stakes in companies ranging from Warner Bros Discovery to entertainment giant Live Nation via Liberty Media.
The departure of Malone comes at an important juncture for his businesses, which are being disrupted by streaming services and alternative broadband providers.
Liberty Global, which owns stakes in European telecoms groups such as Virgin Media O2 and VodafoneZiggo, is slashing hundreds of jobs and selling one of its private jets as part of a restructuring.
The company also sold half of its stake in British broadcaster ITV earlier this month and offloaded its holding in Vodafone in the summer.
Liberty Media is working to build the US audience of both Formula 1 and MotoGP, which it acquired in a €4.3bn deal earlier this year, as well as pushing for consolidation in the US media industry.
In August, Malone told the Financial Times that he had held talks last year with Rupert Murdoch over merging Warner Bros Discovery with Fox, only for discussions to end owing to concerns over the feasibility of Warner’s CNN and Fox News being part of the same company.
Malone has been reconfiguring his ownership of stakes over the past year across his businesses as part of a plan to step back from active management.
He told the FT in August that he expected to end up directly controlling just two businesses, including an Alaskan communications group that he said “could be a vehicle to do something with”.
Malone, who is one of the largest landowners in the US, puts his family wealth at about $10bn — roughly half in real estate and the rest in stakes in various companies. He plans to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes.
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