TCI Chair John Malone, whose Liberty Media Corp. is a
50-50 joint venture partner with News Corp. in Fox/Liberty
Sports, "will seek to buy a half-interest" in the Dodgers if
News Corp. completes its purchase of the team, sources told
Hofmeister & Newhan of the L.A. TIMES. Malone's "sudden
emergence ... could vastly complicate" News Corp. Chair
Rupert Murdoch's efforts to buy the team since MLB owners
have been told that News Corp. "alone was making the
purchase." News Corp. "denied" Friday that Malone or
Liberty Media had any right to buy the team. But Vivian
Carr, Liberty's VP/Investor Relations, said, "If either
partner acquires some venture in sports, once they have
closed the deal, they have to give the (partnership) an
opportunity to participate." Carr said that Liberty has not
decided if it will participate, but a source close to the
deal said Malone intends to exercise the Fox/Liberty option
once the team sale is complete. News Corp. President Peter
Chernin: "This is purely a Fox deal. We are partners (with
Liberty) in all sorts of sports ventures, but not this. We
are under no obligation to offer them ownership." One
source said that Liberty was asked "early on to participate
in the Dodgers purchase but declined." One member of MLB's
Executive Council: "We're only approving Fox. Either Fox is
buying it or they're not buying it. This is bizarre."
Malone could not be reached for comment (L.A. TIMES, 9/27).
SLOWHAND: In L.A., Scott Hettrick reports that Fox has
been "unhappy with how decisions relative to the Fox/Liberty
sports venture, which is managed by Fox, get bogged down in
the Liberty camp" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 9/29).
