Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9408020002
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Comcast, the nation's fourth largest cable service provider and a 15.5 percent stockholder in QVC, announced its $2.2 billion bid late Tuesday, declaring a QVC move into network broadcasting made no sense.
CBS was offering QVC shareholders about $2 billion in stock, and the deal would have installed QVC's Barry Diller as CBS chief.
CBS announced its decision to drop the deal Wednesday morning as its board gathered for what had been expected to be a meeting to approve it.
``We have demonstrated our appetite for new directions and will continue to pursue new business opportunities as appropriate,'' Laurence Tisch, CBS's chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement.
There has been speculation that CBS has made itself a takeover target by entering merger talks with QVC.
CBS said it plans to make a $1.1 billion offer to buy back up to 3.5 million of its shares at $325 a share. Neither the buyback nor a planned 5-to-1 stock split would necessarily discourage bids for CBS, however.
Comcast Chairman Ralph Roberts and his son Brian, Comcast's president, had objected to the merger proposal, telling Diller in a letter that it would be ``a fundamental departure from our strategic view of the company's future.''
Brian Roberts said the CBS merger would have left Philadelphia-based Comcast as a minority stockholder with no management role. Acquiring QVC, on the other hand, would get Comcast into programming - and the Robertses said they would be pleased to make Diller their chief executive.
by CNB