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"While DirecTV tends to garner a lot of negative attention, all the fuss apparently doesn't bother Liberty Media's CEO John Malone, as the firm has recently signed a deal to swap its 16.3-percent stake in News Corp. for \"shares of DirecTV, three regional sports networks and $550 million in cash.\" Liberty, who already controls several other TV networks such as Starz, is hoping to jump back to the forefront of television by assuming News Corp.'s three seats on DirecTV's board of directors. Interestingly, Malone stated that the new investment would \"create financial, operating, and strategic flexibility,\" which could eventually freshen up the previously stale merger talks between DirecTV and Echostar -- but considering Liberty Media still won't have a controlling stake in the company, we're not holding our collective breath."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/27/liberty-media-exchanges-shares-of-news-corp-for-directv/>