Qurate Retail Group (commonly known as Qurate Retail, Inc.) is an American

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According t ...

controlled by company chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares.

History

1998 launch by Liberty Media

Liberty Interactive was originally a division of

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula On ...

. On September 28, 1998, Liberty Media announced the formation of Liberty Interactive, a division that would take advantage of new technologies such as set-top boxes to develop

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

programming. The company owned 86% of TCI Music Inc. (

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

symbol: TUNE/TUNEP). As of January 1, 1999, E! President and Chief Executive Officer Lee Masters would become the new company's CEO, and Bruce Ravenel would be Chief Technology Officer. On September 10, 1999, Liberty Media Group renamed TCI Music to Liberty Digital Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: LDIG), with the new company trading on NASDAQ's National Market tier, after Liberty Media traded most of its Internet content, interactive television assets, and rights to provide AT&T's cable systems with interactive services, plus cash and notes valued at $150 million, for TCI Music stock. Masters, who became Liberty Digital's CEO, told ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' that the new company had a value of $1 billion, $650 million of that from the interactive unit of Liberty Media, which had also used the name Liberty Digital. Liberty Digital lost $244 million with revenue of $66 million in 1999, thanks to investments in struggling Internet businesses

HomeGrocer HomeGrocer.com, Inc. was an online supermarket business. The company was originally started in 1997 by Terry Drayton, Mike Donald, James Fierro and Ken Deering. History The product selection was a complete alternative to the traditional su ...

drugstore.com drugstore.com was an internet retailer in health and beauty care products. Its web operations were launched on February 24, 1999, and shut down on September 30, 2016 after being acquired by Walgreens in March 2011 for $409 million. In June 19 ...

TiVo Corporation TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...

, and

iVillage iVillage, Inc. was a mass media company that operated the ”most popular female-oriented sites” on the internet in the 1990s. In addition to ivillage.com, the company operated iVillage UK, Astrology.com, GardenWeb, and the NBC Digital Health ...

. The company bought half of the

Game Show Network Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along with new, first-run original and revive ...

because of its interactive features. On December 17, 1999, TCI Satellite Entertainment Inc. (TSAT), based in Englewood,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, announced that Liberty Media was trading its interest in Sprint PCS for $300 million in TCI Satellite

preferred stock Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt inst ...

. A new company, ninety percent owned by Liberty Media and ten percent owned by TCI Satellite, would combine the satellite-related businesses and take advantage of the growing area of Internet content.

Spin offs

In 2004, IAC/Interactive announced the spin off of its travel site

Expedia Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, a ...

into the new company Expedia. Barry Diller remained the head of IAC/Interactive and the Chairman of Expedia, a move that was completed in 2005. In November 2007, IAC/InterActiveCorp, then valued at US$18 billion, announced four major spin offs : HSN,

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Enter ...

, Interval (vacation and time-share business) and

LendingTree LendingTree is an online lending marketplace headquartered in Charlotte, NC. The business platform allows potential borrowers to connect with multiple loan operators to find optimal terms for loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, insurance, et ...

. All spun off companies became publicly-traded. IAC retained most of its emerging internet businesses: Ask.com,

Evite Evite is a social-planning website for creating, sending, and managing online invitations. The website offers digital invitations with RSVP tracking. They also offer greeting cards, announcements, eGift cards, and party planning ideas. Evite w ...

, Match.com,

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

Citysearch Citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city ...

and Zwinky. All spun off units were still headed by Barry Diller. In 2010, Liberty Media announced that it would spin off Liberty Starz and Liberty Capital and keep Liberty Interactive. In October 2014, Liberty Interactive spun off BuySeasons and its stake in TripAdvisor into a new company, Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings. In 2015, Liberty Interactive announced it would spin off

CommerceHub CommerceHub is one of the world’s largest commerce networks, providing software solutions to 18,000+ retailers and brands globally for drop shipping, marketplace, digital advertising, and delivery management. It provides integration and fulfillm ...

as a separate company and its interests in

and Bodybuilding.com into a new company, Liberty Expedia Holdings.

2010s sales and acquisitions

In July 2014, Liberty Interactive announced it would be selling Provide Commerce (parent of

ProFlowers ProFlowers is a flower retailer in the United States. It is an e-commerce company that sells products shipped from growers, suppliers and its own distribution facilities to consumers. ProFlowers is headquartered in San Diego, California. It is a wh ...

) to FTD in return for an equity stake in FTD. In October 2014, Liberty Interactive announced its board had approved the division of the firm into two trading stocks – one for its shopping business, QVC Group, and another for its digital commerce, Liberty Digital Commerce, which would trade as Liberty Ventures Group. In April 2017, Liberty Interactive announced it would acquire Alaskan cable company GCI. On July 6, 2017, Liberty Interactive announced that it would purchase the remaining 62% of HSN stock that it didn't already own, in a $2.1 billion all-stock deal at $40.36 a share. In July 2017, Liberty Interactive announced that later that year it would spin off its "cable holdings and other non-retail assets" into the new company Liberty Ventures, with Liberty Interactive to be renamed QVC Group. QVC Group would consist of QVC, HSN, Cornerstone Brands, and Zulily. On March 1, 2018, Liberty Interactive Corporation announced that it would rename itself to Qurate Retail Group. In July 2021, Qurate Retail announced that former president and CEO Mike George would be replaced by David Rawlinson II on October 1 of the same year.

Activities

*Qurate Retail Group: QVC, Inc.,

Zulily Zulily, LLC is an American e-commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington and owned by Qurate Retail Group. Its target audience is young mothers interested in brand-name goods for their children. It holds no inventory, instead consolida ...

, HSN, Cornerstone Brands *Liberty Ventures: www.ebaby.com *Interests in:

Brit + Co Brit + Co is a website and lifestyle brand targeted at women. The company was founded by Brit Morin in 2011. History Brit + Co was founded in late 2011 by Brit Morin, who served as CEO. In January 2018, the company hired Jill Braff, a forme ...

, FTD, giggle, ILG, Liberty Broadband,

, Quid

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Companies, Television American companies established in 1998 Mass media companies of the United States Conglomerate companies of the United States Holding companies of the United States Companies based in Colorado Douglas County, Colorado Mass media companies established in 1998 Holding companies established in 1998 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Corporate spin-offs Liberty Media subsidiaries