Will QVC buy HSN?

Will West Chester-based QVC's owners buy rival HSN, the Home Shopping Network, and combine the channels? John Malone's Liberty Media owns QVC and one-third of HSN. Liberty's planned spin-off of QVC and its other channels into a separate company, Liberty Interactive, could make a combination (which Malone has attempted before) more likely.

Here's what Liberty ceo Gregory B. Maffei told analyst Michael Harrigan of Wunderlich Securities when he asked about it in a conference call yesterday: "We sit in a very enviable position with a 33% interest in HSN, that we thInk is probably a good strategic asset for us for the long-term. But Liberty Interactive has many good uses for its capital... a more attractive one being share repurchase of its own stock... We certainly aren't going to chase the HSN stock.... Watch August come and go, and maybe the market will believe us more... We have no plan or intention to do anything other than keep our options open... It may open you up for other opportunities." More from Liberty here.