Starz Rises During NASDAQ Debut

Starz Rises During NASDAQ Debut
Stock Closes Above $50 Per Share
Mike Farrell -- 11/20/2009 5:14:27 PM

Liberty Starz, the publicly traded entity that includes Starz Entertainment and other former Liberty Media businesses, made its debut on the Nasdaq Global Market System Friday under the symbol "LSTZA," finishing the day at $50.25 per share, up 5% ($2.41 per share) from its when-issued close of $47.84 on Nov, 19.

Liberty Starz"Liberty Starz"Liberty Starz was created after the spin-off of Liberty Entertainment on Thursday and includes the premium service Starz, as well as satellite high-speed data service WildBlue Communications and online services PicksPal, Fanball, FUN Technologies and about $650 million in cash. Starz management has said that they expect the premium channel to report 5% to 10% cash flow growth and revenue growth of between 3% and 4% in 2010.

The stock began trading on a when-issued basis on Nov. 5 and prices ranged from $50.10 to $46.10 per share. It opened on Nov, 20, its first full day of regular trading on the Nasdaq, at $49.50 per share.

With 49.5 million shares outstanding, Liberty Starz has a market capitalization of about $2.5 billion, more than 27% higher than the $1.96 billion valuation the company had said some analysts had placed on the stock.