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Liberty Media Swings to Fourth-Quarter Profit

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Liberty Media (LMCA) swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, while Liberty Interactive (LINTA) also booked stronger earnings amid revenue growth at QVC.

Liberty Media said Friday its operating profit checked in at $189 million, compared to a $60 million loss in the same period a year earlier. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization went from a $30 million loss to a $319 million gain. According to FactSet, analysts were looking for adjusted results of $336.4 million.

Revenue ticked 2% higher to $1 billion, missing Wall Street expectations for $1.03 billion.

The Englewood, Colo.-based company was recently involved in a push by Charter Communications (CHTR) to acquire larger cable rival Time Warner Cable (TWC). Liberty Media owns a 27% stake in Charter, which made a bid for its larger cable rival. But earlier this month, Comcast (CMCSA) swooped in with a $45.2 billion offer.

Liberty Media also owns about 52% of Sirius XM (SIRI). It offered last month to buy the remaining stake for $3.68 a share. On Friday, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said the company is responding to requests for information from the satellite radio operators special committee.

We believe this combination will simplify the capital structure, further align management and provide ultimate strategic and financial flexibility, he added.

Liberty Interactive reported an operating profit of $404 million versus $382 million in the year-ago period. Adjusted OIBDA fell 1% to $618 million. Revenue grew 2.7% to $3.23 billion.

Shopping network QVC, the largest top-line contributor, logged a 1.8% increase in revenue to $2.74 billion. The segments U.S. revenue jumped 5.7% to $1.93 billion. Revenue at the e-commerce unit was up 6.6% at $487 million.

Maffei, who also serves as CEO of Liberty Interactive, said the owner of video and Internet properties will split the A and B series of its Liberty Ventures Group tracking stock early in the second quarter.

Class A shares of Liberty Media rose 0.8% to $137.21 early Friday morning. Liberty Interactive fell 1.9% to $29.11.

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Liberty Media Swings to Fourth-Quarter Profit

Religious liberty? Or anti-gay discrimination?

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Despite a major victory in Arizona this week, the battle over where the line will be drawn between "religious freedom" and protection for gays against discrimination is only just heating up, advocates on both sides say.

Since August 2013, lawmakers in at least 13 states have introduced legislation similar to the controversial Arizona bill vetoed Wednesday as a new front line emerges in the battle over same-sex marriage and gay rights.

Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel at the ACLU, said there has been a significant uptick in the introduction of such legislation the last few years.

Our opponents have made it quite clear that this is a deliberate strategy on their part to erode the significant gains that LGBT people have made, she said Thursday. What is noteworthy in 2014 is just the sheer scope of these kinds of bills. They are broader than we had ever seen before.

The bills, generally modeled off a 1993 federal law (the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act") that set the standard for when a religious protection argument can be invoked, are being pushed just as judges in Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah and Texas recently knocked down bans on same-sex marriage the first victories for gay marriage advocates in the South and conservative states.

And, since January, four more states have allowed gays and lesbians to wed, bringing the number of states where such unions are legal to 17 (the District of Columbia permits it, too).

Fifty years ago, businesses were allowed to turn people away because of the color of their skin and we as a nation decided that was unacceptable.

Though gay marriage opponents had raised concerns about religious protection many years ago, the recent sweeping changes have made their work more urgent to ensure that religious liberty is protected, said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council.

Some of those efforts have included the recent legislation, which in states like South Dakota, Tennessee and Kansas, did target gays, according to the ACLU. Gay marriage opponents say the Arizona bill was not specifically aimed at allowing businesses or individuals to deny services to the LGBT community, though gay rights supporters maintain it was.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came under a lot of pressure from businesses, the major sports leagues and human rights advocates to veto the legislation. Its defeat "proves the case that we have been making, Sprigg said. It validates our sense of alarm over this issue because it shows that there is a conflict between the same-sex marriage movement and religious liberty.

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Religious liberty? Or anti-gay discrimination?


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