QVC shopping channel sold

The QVC sale was forced

The US Cable TV giant Comcast has agreed to sell its majority stake in the shopping channel QVC to the investment firm Liberty Media for $7.9bn (£4.7bn).

The deal arose after Liberty triggered a clause in the two firms' co-ownership agreement, under which Comcast had to either buy Liberty's stake, sell its own stake to Liberty, or allow QVC as a whole to be sold on the open market.

"This was a tough decision for us," said Comcast executive vice president David Cohen.

"QVC has been a wonderful business for Comcast."

The deal values QVC at $14.1bn.

Liberty must chose by the end of next week whether it wants to pay for the 57.5% stake in cash, debt or shares.

Two bids

Liberty is also bidding for Vivendi Universal's entertainment assets in the USA.

It is very clear chief executive John Malone wants Liberty to become more of an operating company Matthew Harrigan Janco Partners.

Completing two such large deals at the same time could be complicated, some analysts warned.

But others said Liberty was cash rich so this should not pose a problem.

Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Bilotti estimated that Liberty's war chest contained $15bn of resources.

Operating company

The two deals on the table have also spurred speculation about Liberty's future role in the world of media.

"It is very clear chief executive John Malone wants Liberty to become more of an operating company," said Matthew Harrigan, analyst at Janco Partners.

However, one source told Reuters that Mr Malone had seen the QVC deal as a back-up in the event of the Vivendi deal falling through.

"He was growing apprehensive that they weren't going to get anything done with Vivendi," the source said.

Comcast said the deal would help cut its debts from $27bn to $20bn by the end of this year.