'Hey, just buy stock in Liberty and become a billionaire just like me!'
At Liberty Media's special meeting Nov. 19 in New York to approve the spinoff of Liberty Entertainment, Malone fielded a question from an obviously disgruntled shareholder who complained the company was not redeeming fractional shares in the transaction.
Malone at first tried to appease the man by telling him that he would take up his proposal of holding a separate "odd-lot" tender offer with counsel. But the questioner persisted.
So Malone told him that if he had bought Liberty stock when he said he bought it - the questioner he said he originally owned Liberty Satellite stock, which was retired several years ago - and held onto his shares, then he had done "extremely well." The man continued to complain.
"Let me put it this way," Malone said. "I started broke and I'm now a billionaire. And I never sold any shares."
