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Stockholders' Equity
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12 Months Ended |
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Dec. 31, 2014
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| Stockholders' Equity Attributable to Parent [Abstract] | |
| Stockholders' Equity |
(12)Stockholders' Equity
Preferred Stock
Liberty's preferred stock is issuable, from time to time, with such designations, preferences and relative participating, optional or other rights, qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof, as shall be stated and expressed in a resolution or resolutions providing for the issue of such preferred stock adopted by Liberty's board of directors. As of December 31, 2014, no shares of preferred stock were issued.
Common Stock
As discussed in note 1, on July 23, 2014, holders of Series A and Series B common stock received a dividend of two shares of Series C common stock for each share of Series A or Series B common stock held by them as of July 7, 2014.
Liberty's Series A common stock has one vote per share, Liberty's Series B common stock has ten votes per share and Liberty’s Series C common stock has no votes per share. Each share of the Series B common stock is exchangeable at the option of the holder for one share of Series A common stock. All series of our common stock participate on an equal basis with respect to dividends and distributions.
As of December 31, 2014, there were 3.2 million shares of Series A and 9.8 million shares of Series C common stock reserved for issuance under exercise privileges of outstanding stock options.
Purchases of Common Stock
During the year ended December 31, 2012 the Company repurchased 3,591,271 shares of Series A Liberty common stock for aggregate cash consideration of $323 million under the authorized repurchase program.
During the year ended December 31, 2013 the Company repurchased 1,264,550 shares of Series A Liberty common stock for the aggregate cash consideration of $140 million under the authorized repurchase program. Additionally, Liberty obtained shares of Liberty Series A common stock on October 3, 2013, pursuant to a transaction in which a subsidiary of Comcast, Inc. exchanged approximately 6.3 million shares of Liberty's Series A common stock for a newly created subsidiary of Liberty which held Liberty's wholly owned subsidiary Leisure Arts, Inc., approximately $417 million in cash and Liberty's rights in and to a revenue sharing agreement relating to the carriage of CNBC ("CNBC Agreement"). Liberty recorded a gain of approximately $496 million determined based on the difference between the fair value of the shares obtained in the exchange transaction and the carrying value assets and businesses delivered. These exchange shares obtained were done so through special approval from the Company's Board of Directors and was not considered a repurchase of shares under the Company's formal share repurchase program. Liberty treated the transaction as a tax-free exchange. In January 2014, the IRS completed its review of the exchange and notified Liberty that it agreed with the non-taxable characterization of the transaction.
There were no repurchases of Liberty common stock made pursuant to the Company’s authorized repurchase program during the year ended December 31, 2014.
All of the foregoing shares obtained have been retired and returned to the status of authorized and available for issuance.
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