Billionaire John C. Malone is stepping down as board chair of Liberty Media at year’s end, the powerhouse sports and entertainment company announced Wednesday.

Malone — who lives in Elbert County and whose 2 million acres of personal holdings had once ranked him as the nation’s largest private landowner — will be replaced as chairman by Liberty Vice Chairman Robert R. Bennett, according to a company news release.

After starting a career at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Malone built Denver Tech Center-based Tele-Communications Inc. into a cable television powerhouse that helped launch the metro area as a cable satellite capital. He has served on boards of Mellon Bank, Expedia.com, Charter Communications, Warner Bros., Discovery and Lions Gate Entertainment; and at one point had vied with Rupert Murdoch for control of News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal. Liberty also owns SiriusXM.

According to Liberty, Malone will assume the title of chairman emeritus.

In a company statement, Malone was quoted as saying that serving as Liberty’s chair was the most rewarding experience of his professional life.

“With the successful simplification of our portfolio in recent years and our operating businesses in positions of strength, I believe it is an appropriate time to step back from certain of my obligations,” he said.

Malone noted that “Dob” Bennett, his successor, had been a partner for 35 years. Malone added that he intends to remain active as a Liberty shareholder and strategic adviser to the board.

Bennett has been a director of Liberty Media since 1994 and served as Liberty’s president and CEO from 1997 to 2005. He had been among Liberty’s founding executives in 1991.

Liberty Media’s operations include two stock groups: the Formula One Group and the Liberty Live Group. According to the statement, Malone owns millions of shares of three Formula One related sports racing entities controlled by Liberty, along with similar holdings of Liberty Live common stock. He represents some 48.9% of the voting power of Liberty Live’s common stock.

Liberty Media lists assets including interests in Kroenke Arena Company and Ball Arena, including some profits from the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche.

Among Malone’s philanthropic ventures, in 2014 he and his wife donated $42.5 million to Colorado State University in helping create an Institute for Biologic Translational Therapies aimed at developing stem cell treatments.