Media titan John Malone, 74, may have been dormant in his deal-making the past few years, but now he's back in a big way. He engineered the cable merger of Time Warner and Charter, and now he's on a the lookout for other deals as well. He recently told investors that a merger between independent studio Lionsgate and cable network Starz could soon be on the horizon. Years ago, through his company Liberty media, he negotiated one of Netflix's first licensing deal that gave them access to Starz's content. Later, he held out, not letting Netflix stream Starz. Netflix was forced to stream other properties, which eventually became very popular and grew the outlet to what it is today. Now, by consolidating these other media companies, Malone is hoping to do battle with Netflix, a media behemoth he once helped create.
KCRW
