Starz Said to Hire Firm to Look for Buyer
Pay-TV Company Met With 21st Century Fox, Which Is Said Not to Be Interested in Deal
On Tuesday, Starz met with 21st Century Fox FOX -0.87% to see if the entertainment company was interested in striking a deal. A person familiar with 21st Century Fox's thinking described the meeting as a courtesy and said there was no interest in buying or investing in Starz. A Starz spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on rumors and speculation.
News of the meeting was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. (Until last year, 21st Century Fox was part of the same company as News Corp, NWSA -0.76% owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.)
A competitor to Time Warner Inc. TWX -0.53% 's HBO and CBS Corp.'s CBS +0.75% Showtime, Starz has struggled to create strong original programming and is also losing access to theatrical movies from Walt Disney Co. DIS -1.10% starting in 2017. Until 2013, Starz was a unit of cable mogul John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. LMCA -0.44%
Starz has been seen as a potential takeover target since it went public. Its stock closed at $29.58 Tuesday and it has a market capitalization of $3.13 billion. Starz is in about 22 million homes and Encore, a sister channel, is in 35 million homes.
The boutique investment bank LionTree Advisors LLC has been retained by Starz, a person familiar with the matter said. LionTree wasn't immediately available to comment.