QVC to Merge With Home Shopping Network in $2.1 Billion Deal<br />“The increased scale of this combination will allow us to more effectively compete, we think, in a changing<br />and evolving retail and digital environment,” Gregory B. Maffei, the chief executive of Liberty Interactive, said on a conference call with analysts on Thursday.<br />That publicly traded company would comprise QVC, HSN and Zulily, the flash sale site that Liberty bought for $2.4 billion two years ago.<br />His Liberty Interactive, which owns QVC, said on Thursday<br />that it would combine with its longtime rival, the Home Shopping Network, in a $2.1 billion deal.<br />Liberty Interactive then plans to spin off its nonretail assets, including its stakes in the cable operator Charter<br />and Liberty Broadband, and rename the remaining operations the QVC Group.
