WHEN: Today, Thursday, November 14, 2023
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” – Liberty Media Day
Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with Liberty Media Outgoing CEO Greg Maffei on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” (M-F, 9AM-11AM ET) today, Thursday, November 14 for Liberty Media Day. Following is a link to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/11/14/liberty-medias-greg-maffei-on-stepping-down-as-ceo-spinning-off-of-assets.html
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
DAVID FABER: CEO Greg Maffei is also announcing that he’s going to be stepping down. And who better to have to ask about that than the man himself.
GREG MAFFEI: Thank you for having me, David.
FABER: It’s been a lot of years of doing Liberty Media Day. It’s been a great fun for me through the years. Let’s start off with the news from yesterday involving you. Why are you leaving after 19 years as this company’s CEO?
MAFFEI: Well, I think John phrased it well, that we really accomplished the mission. We bought a series of businesses, many of which performed very well. But they were in less than the optimal structure inside of Liberty Media. So over the last year, we’ve freed the Braves as a standalone public company. Had a transition agreement there where they’re out on their own. We’ve taken our stake in SiriusXM through LSXM, our tracking stock, merge, spun it, re-attributed, merged it into Sirius. It’s a standalone public company now. Still Chairman of that. We have taken our stake in Charter and effectively now have a pre-agreed upon a deal to merge that in. So that’s one more piece gone. And then lastly, we announced yesterday that we were spinning out our stake in Live Nation through Liberty Live. So really, all of the pieces that were there of Liberty Media are all now separately. And Liberty Media is a pure play in motorsport with F1 and the pending acquisition of Dorna.
FABER: But can’t you figure out something new to do? You’re a very creative guy. You and I have known each other for a very long time. Most of your career, I’ve seen you do all sorts of things. Why not stay and figure out another chapter of Liberty?
MAFFEI: Well, there will be another chapter of Liberty, but I got to declare victory on the ones that I did. And we’ve had some great deals. We’ve been very lucky. Had great management teams drive them. And it seemed like a good time to say all the table is cleaned up there. All the stage is set. And my contract was expiring at the end of the year. And I thought I’d go check out another chapter.
FABER: Yeah.
MAFFEI: Now, I’m going to continue to be an advisor. I’m going to continue to be on a bunch of our boards, including Live Nation and Charter. But I’ve got one more act in me.
FABER: You do? Alright, so give us a sense. Give me a preview. What are you thinking?
MAFFEI: I am not thinking anything, David. You know, I’ve been really lucky. I was thinking about it as running into this. The last three jobs that I’ve had, somebody approached me. I didn’t really go out and look. I was – somebody kind enough to say, hey, this is interesting, and I did it. So I’ve never really stepped back in a long time, 25 years, and stepped back and said, what do I really want to do and think about? So I’ll take a little break.
FABER: You know, there’s this cable company spinoff that may occur fairly soon. And there may be some real opportunities there, Greg, for deal-making and things like that. I don’t know if you’re interested.
MAFFEI: That’s your world now.
FABER: Yeah, well, that is my world. It used to be your world to a certain extent as well. I do want to come to a couple of the things that were announced yesterday. The Liberty Broadband transaction had been expected. You got the ratio ironed out.
MAFFEI: Yeah.
FABER: I assume the two stocks will trade right on top of each other. Why is it going to take until June of 27 to get this deal completed?
MAFFEI: Well, I think there are a couple things. First, we have some actions we’re going to take with respect to GCI, which was also a part of Liberty Broadband but is not included in the transaction with Charter. So we’ll see how long that takes from a regulatory perspective. I think Charter appreciates Liberty’s participation on the board and as a strategic partner. And so this gives us some time to work together still. And I think we still believe there’s upside in that Charter stock.
FABER: You have options, too, don’t you?
MAFFEI: I do.
FABER: You do. Yeah, you can hopefully live to see those actually come into the money in a real way?
MAFFEI: Well, I – you know, we’ve seen Charter come off its highs. But if you look at us, we’re still up about probably close to 3X on our position, so not quite 2.6 times or something like that on our position. So it’s been a good investment for us.
FABER: Yeah, do you have any sense in terms of trying to measure the investment performance that has occurred under your leadership? Because it’s got to be extraordinarily difficult, given I don’t even know how many transactions you guys have done.
MAFFEI: Well, we do track that. We show that every year at Investor Day. And it shows that over the 19 years, it’s been something like 17% compounded compared to an S&P of about 11% compounded. And, you know, I think if you —
FABER: And that’s – these last couple of years have not been particularly good.
MAFFEI: Not been easy on media.
FABER: No.
MAFFEI: Particularly given where the space we came from, I think that’s, you know, pretty good performance.
FABER: Yeah. No, 17% is great. You mentioned Sirius as well, Greg. It is its own entity now.
MAFFEI: Yeah.
FABER: In fact, Berkshire, I think, is the largest single shareholder.
MAFFEI: They are.
FABER: What do you — but you’re still chairman.
MAFFEI: I am.
FABER: What about the future of that entity? You know, there are some who believe you could cut SG&A a lot, really run it for cash flow. Maybe it’s better in private hands. Do you have any thoughts?
MAFFEI: First, Sirius is blessed with great content, a great customer experience, and a very loyal fan base. It has been more challenging to find growth off the car platform. And I think the company is thinking about ways to maximize its value in light of that. So stay tuned. I think they’ve got some great strategies they’re going to roll out shortly.
FABER: What was maximized value? Do you want to give me any hints as to what you mean when you say that?
MAFFEI: Well, I think they’re going to think about how to rationalize what their offerings are to the consumer and that fits them the most way, recognizing that we have this loyal base. How do we get the most out of them? What adjacencies make the most sense and what do we, you know, not chase?
FABER: Yeah. And F1, which will be its own pure play.
MAFFEI: Yeah.
FABER: It’s run, obviously, by your CEO out of London. Malone is going to take over as, I guess, interim CEO of the holding company.
MAFFEI: Yeah.
FABER: But what do you see as the future in terms of that asset?
MAFFEI: Oh, I think F1 is incredibly well positioned. Probably the company I’m proudest to have been involved because we really — Liberty bought it, helped change the strategy, brought in Chase Carey, did an amazing job since brought in after Chase left. Stefano Domenicali has done well. But the business is very well positioned, right? I outlined some of it in our slides today. You know, grown the global partnership since 2019. We’ve compounded sponsorship at 16%. We’ve compounded all the revenue streams at something like 12%. It’s really been a hallmark of what sports wants to be, you know, growing fan interest through things like Drive to Survive, growing sponsorship, growing high-end experiences. Sort of a model everyone else is a little bit trying to follow. Everyone’s done it super well.
FABER: Do you see it continuing to be able to grow organically and/or I mean, there’s always thoughts that, well, certainly the Saudis would love to own it potentially, the PIF. They may be able to become a larger shareholder as a result of the change in terms of what’s taking place. Is there a future of it potentially being acquired, do you think?
MAFFEI: Look, I don’t think there’s any plan to sell it. It’s got a great future, but, you know, I suspect the Board of Liberty will be appropriate stewards of the shareholder capital.
FABER: And, you know, Greg, as somebody who’s watched the media landscape and been a part of it for a quarter century or more, I don’t know, where do you see opportunity right now, I guess? Particularly as of the beginning of next year, you’re going to sort of be a free agent, able to kind of seek opportunity if you see it. Like, where would you think, ah, there’s something interesting? There’s either an opportunity to turn something around or there’s something that’s undervalued?
MAFFEI: Well, I’m not announcing my target list today, David, but I’m going to look for opportunities. Look, I do think you’ve seen the traditional media landscape be very, very tough. Obviously, the technology players have come in, in a strong way, and they have huge tailwinds. You know, the reality that AI will change the landscape for them and is a continuing cycle of upgrades is very interesting. So we’ll watch and see where that all brings us.
FABER: That’s all you’re going to give me?
MAFFEI: That’s all I’m going to give you today.
FABER: Are you going to take any time off?
MAFFEI: I am. I’m going to go skiing.
FABER: Right, but you’re not going to — you’re not retiring in any way.
MAFFEI: I don’t think so. First of all —
FABER: Don’t do that. I don’t like to see retirements.
MAFFEI: You don’t like to see retirements?
FABER: No.
MAFFEI: First of all, I’m going to be chairman of about three or four companies still and on a few more boards, so I’ve got some time on those. But I’m also going to think about what else I want to do.
FABER: Alright. Well, Greg, it’s always been a pleasure, and I have a feeling we’ll be sitting down again in probably the not-too-distant future. But, thank you.
MAFFEI: Thank you, David.
FABER: You’re welcome. Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media.
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