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Billionaire investor Barry Diller has a half-million dollar Coke problem.
The 71-year-old media mogul yesterday agreed to pay $480,000 to settle a regulatory complaint that he bought nearly 1 million shares of the soft-drink giant without giving regulators advance notice.
Antitrust rules mandate that large purchases of stock that could affect commerce must be preceded by notifying the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice.
Diller’s Coke problem dates to Nov. 1, 2010, when he bought 120,000 shares of Coca-Cola. According to the FTC, those purchases put him above the threshold required to disclose the holdings.
Diller went on to buy an additional 605,000 shares by April 26, 2012, and another 264,000 shares on April 27.
It wasn’t Diller’s first slip-up in this area.
The mogul had done the same thing in 1998, in connection with his acquisition of CitySearch shares.
At that time, Diller was not fined — but was told to establish an “effective compliance program,” the FTC said.
This time around, Diller will have to fork over the cash.
Under the settlement, Diller neither denied or admitted guilt.
The civil lawsuit against Diller actually was filed by the Justice Department at the request of the FTC.
The suit was immediately settled, but needs to be approved by the court.
The fine is small potatoes compared with the value of Diller’s Coke stock. At the time of the filing requirement, Diller’s holdings were worth between $63.4 million and $68.2 million. They are currently valued at $70.9 million.
A spokeswoman for Diller’s IAC/Interactive did not reply to a request for comment.
Coca-Cola doesn’t seem to care. It told Bloomberg that Diller is a “valued member” of its board and isn’t going anywhere. He has been a board member since 2002.