The deal was triggered by outside buyers. Liberty Media said Malone received a series of unsolicited offers from third parties for his high-vote Series B stock. Rather than let those shares walk out the door, the company stepped in and bought them itself, then adopted a shareholder rights plan running through 3 November 2027 to deter anyone else from accumulating a controlling position.

Malone, who founded Liberty Media in 1991, held roughly 2.3 million Series B shares, about 97% of that super-voting class. His entities received around 602,000 Series A and 5.4 million Series C shares in exchange, in a tax-free structure that the board’s special committee priced at a premium of about 1.5% of Liberty Media’s equity market value as of 30 October, the company said in its announcement.

From chairman emeritus to senior adviser

Malone has also stepped down as chairman emeritus and will stay on as a senior adviser to the business.

“The Transaction allows me to increase my economic ownership of Liberty Media while distributing voting power more broadly among Liberty Media’s other shareholders,” Malone said in the statement.

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The special committee of independent directors that negotiated the deal was chaired by Chase Carey, the former Formula 1 chief executive. Carey said the structure “helps to align John’s voting power with his economic ownership” and was aimed at stopping a large voting block from passing to an outside buyer. Robert R. Bennett, Liberty Media’s chairman, described the move as one that will simplify the company’s capital structure and give the business more flexibility.

FWONA jumped 9% after the news

Liberty Media’s FWONA shares rose 9% after the announcement. The super-voting class had long been a complication for anyone modelling a potential sale of Liberty Media, because Malone’s vote gave him a disproportionate say over any strategic move.

Derek Chang, Liberty Media’s president and CEO since February 2025, told analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings call that Malone’s holding entity had “controlled a significant set of votes with a relatively low economic interest”, and that unwinding that stake “helps us effectively control our own destiny forward.”

Liberty Media’s F1 stake

Liberty Media completed its acquisition of Formula 1 in January 2017 in a deal with an equity value of about $4.4 billion. The super-voting structure that Malone has now unwound had given him an outsized say over any future move involving that asset, which is why outside investors were willing to pay to prise a controlling vote out of his hands.

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The rights plan expires on 3 November 2027 unless the board redeems or terminates it earlier.

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