Years ended December 31,

2017

2016

2015

amounts in millions

QVC Group

HSNi (1)

$

40

48

64

Other

(2)

(6)

(9)

Total QVC Group

38

42

55

Ventures Group

FTD (2)

(146)

(41)

(83)

LendingTree (3)

 7

12

 2

Other (4)

(99)

(81)

(152)

Total Ventures Group

(238)

(110)

(233)

Consolidated Liberty

$

(200)

(68)

(178)

(1)

As discussed in note 5, on December 29, 2017,  the Company acquired the approximately 62% of HSNi it did not already own in an all-stock transaction making HSNi a wholly-owned subsidiary, attributed to the QVC Group tracking stock group. Therefore the Company no longer has an equity method investment in HSNi as of December 31, 2017. In addition, HSNi paid dividends of $28 million, $28 million, and $228 million during the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively, which were recorded as reductions to the investment balances, and recorded as a cash inflow from operations in the Cash receipts from returns on equity investments line item in the consolidated statements of cash flows.  Dividends from HSNi during the year ended December 31, 2015 included a special dividend of $10 per share from which Liberty received approximately $200 million in cash, which was recorded as a cash inflow from investing activities in the Cash receipts from returns of equity investments line item in the consolidated statements of cash flows.

(2)

The carrying value of Liberty’s investment in FTD was written down to its fair value (based on the closing price (Level 1)) as of December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2015.

(3)

During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company purchased an additional 450 thousand shares of LendingTree common stock (“TREE”). In order to purchase the additional shares, Ventures Holdco, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company executed a 2-year postpaid variable forward with a notional value of $110 million.  The company pledged 642,850 shares of TREE and purchased the delta underlying of 450,000 shares for $77 million. Changes in the fair value of the derivative are reflected in the Realized and unrealized gains (losses) on financial instruments, net line item in the consolidated statements of operations.  For the period ended December 31, 2017, the Company recorded an unrealized loss of $95 million.

(4)

The Other category for the Ventures Group is comprised of alternative energy investments and other investments. The alternative energy investments generally operate at a loss but provide favorable tax attributes recorded through the income tax (expense) benefit line item in the consolidated statements of operations. During the year ended December 31, 2015, Liberty recorded an impairment of approximately $98 million, based on a discounted cash flow valuation (Level 3), related to one of its alternative energy investments which had underperformed operationally.