Liberty to Regain Ownership Of Regional Sports Channels

LIBERTY TO REGAIN OWNERSHIP OF REGIONAL SPORTS CHANNELS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Adam Thompson adam.thompson@wsj.com and Julia Angwin]
As part of a far-reaching agreement with News Corp. expected to be announced this week, Liberty Media Corp. will regain ownership of regional sports cable channels in Pittsburgh, Seattle and its home market of Denver. With regional coverage of professional sports teams including the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners and Colorado Rockies, the networks are a small but vital piece of a much larger swap under discussion between the two companies. The centerpiece of the deal is News Corp.'s purchase of Liberty's $11 billion stake in the media giant in exchange for News Corp's 38.6% stake in satellite-TV firm DirecTV Group. To qualify for a tax-free swap, 5% of the assets being traded to Liberty must be operating businesses. As the DirecTV stake is an investment for News Corp., the media conglomerate agreed to include the three sports networks. Liberty will also receive cash.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116580842675746248.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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