QVC to Buy Rival Home Shopping Network

QVC and Home Shopping Network, the two most prominent home shopping networks, are merging to form a new retail juggernaut as part of an all-stock deal valued at about $2.1 billion. Under the agreement, QVC’s parent firm, Liberty Interactive, the holding company founded by media mogul John C. Malone, is expected to buy the remaining 62 percent of HSN that it does not already own. The entity would then combine under QVC Group, but HSN would continue as a separate brand.

The transaction is set to be finalized by the end of the year, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. It would create the largest television commerce company in the world, with $14 billion dollars in revenue, and become the third-largest e-commerce company in North America behind only Amazon.com and Walmart.