Liberty Media Loss Widens to $3.71 Billion

Liberty Media Corp., the cable-television company controlled by John Malone, said its fourth-quarter loss widened to $3.71 billion after it wrote down the value of investments.

The loss was $1.43 a share, compared with a loss of $1.48 billion, or 57 cents, a year earlier, Liberty said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Liberty’s sales rose 10% to $521 million from $473 million.

Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty took charges against earnings last year of $4.1 billion to write down the value of its investments in other media companies, including AOL Time Warner Inc. and News Corp., the filing said. Advertising sales at those companies and their rivals declined last year as the U.S. economy slipped into recession.

Liberty Media wrote down the value of its 4% stake in AOL Time Warner, the world’s largest media and Internet company, by $2.1 billion. Liberty wrote down its 18% stake in News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, by $915 million.

Shares of Liberty Media rose 1cent to $12.65 on the New York Stock Exchange.