QVC, Home Shopping Network to merge in $2 billion deal

PHILADELPHIA — Video-shopping network QVC and the Home Shopping Network will merge in an effort to better compete against Amazon and Walmart, as more consumers stop watching cable TV and do their shopping online.

The combined company will be the third-largest U.S. electronics retailer and will be large enough to be listed on the Standard & Poor's 500 index, according to Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Interactive Corp., the holding company built by cable TV pioneer John Malone that controls QVC.

QVC, based outside Philadelphia, plans to acquire the 62 percent of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based HSN it doesn't already own, the companies said in a statement Thursday. Denver-based Liberty is to be renamed QVC Group after the deal's scheduled closing later this year. QVC boss Mike George will run both brands, including the three QVC channels and the two HSN channels and their online and mobile shopping services.

The companies plan to cut at least $75 million in yearly spending by eliminating any duplication in management, administrative and information technology spending, Maffei told investors.

Two years ago, QVC, which employs more than 4,000 workers in southeastern Pennsylvania, bought Seattle-based mobile-shopping network Zulily.

HSN was the original U.S. home shopping channel, founded in 1977.

QVC is now larger, with around 8 million regular customers and 183 million boxes shipped last year, compared to 5 million customers and 50 million packages for HSN.