Liberty Global, the US media and telecoms group founded by billionaire John Malone, has sold roughly half of its long-held 10% stake in ITV.聽
The British broadcaster has been the subject of persistent takeover rumours and has seen its share price dip by 8% to 68.5p since the news.聽
Liberty said it was selling about 191 million shares, worth approximately 拢140m at ITV鈥檚 latest closing price.聽
The sale, managed by BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank, reduces the firm鈥檚 holding to around 5%.聽
It first acquired its ITV stake in 2015 after purchasing shares from BSkyB the previous year in a move initially seen as a strategic play to block rival bidders.
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Since then, ITV鈥檚 share price has fallen by around two-thirds as the broadcaster has faced growing competition from streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon, alongside pressure from a weakening advertising market.
The FTSE 250 constituent still holds a market cap of around 拢2.58 billion despite the sale.聽
In a statement, Liberty said: 鈥淎s stated in our Q1 2025 earnings, we鈥檙e actively managing our Liberty Growth portfolio, disposing of certain assets while prioritising our scale-based investments.聽
鈥淎s part of that process we are divesting part of our stake in ITV.鈥�