Liberty Buys Stake In B&N

Liberty Media Corp., the largest shareholder in Live Nation, bought a minority stake in troubled bookseller Barnes & Noble after a bid for 70 percent of the company fell through.

John Malone’s Liberty instead invested $204 million and gained two seats on the B&N board. Liberty president and CEO Greg Maffei and senior VP Mark Carleton were named to fill those seats.

In addition to Live Nation and B&N, Liberty owns all or part of Sirius SM, shopping channel QVC, movie channels Starz and Encore, the Atlanta Braves baseball team, Expedia, ProvideCommerce.com, The Right Start and other businesses.