Starz CEO Chris Albrecht denied rumors on Tuesday that the company is pursuing a sale, but told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" that management would talk to anybody and consider anything that will be good for its business.
The New York Post reported last month that Starz, a premium cable and satellite television network, was seeking as much as $5 billion dollars in a potential deal. The newspaper named Lionsgate and CBS as suitors. CNBC's David Faber later confirmed that CBS was not interested in buying the network.
The key rational for spinning Starz out of Liberty Media was making it more flexible to forge strategic alliances, said Albrecht, adding that those conversations go on all the time.
Asked whether those conversations had been misconstrued, he said, "I've said from the beginning selling a company is not a strategy. But at the same time we have an obligation to shareholders, if people want to talk to us about buying the company, that's very different statement than we're selling the company."
Albrecht said he was unaware of interest among potential buyers until he read news reports.
"One day literally I woke up and read all of these companies are interested in buying Starz," he said. "This stuff gets spun. That's all I can say."