Liberty Likely to Swap News Corp. Stake for Control of DirecTV

DENVER, October 12: Liberty Media Corp. has confirmed that
it will probably swap its 19.1-percent stake in News Corp. for News Corp.’s
38.3-percent controlling interest in DirecTV.

"We were saying in the marketplace that we may exchange
our roughly $11 billion stake in News Corp. for a controlling stake in
DirecTV," Liberty president and CEO Greg Maffei is reported to have said
at a conference. News Corp.’s stake in DirecTV is estimated to be worth about
$9 billion, so additional assets may be involved in the transaction.

Liberty Media chairman John Malone and News Corp. chairman
Rupert Murdoch are known to have been in talks over such a deal ever since
Malone bought his way into News Corp. in 2004. Malone’s move had prompted
Murdoch to set up a poison pill provision, making a hostile takeover of his
company prohibitively expensive.

The anticipated exchange would add a significant satellite
business to Liberty’s sprawling cable empire.