Liberty Media eyes News Corp's stake in DirecTV

NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) Liberty Media Corp. President and CEO Greg Maffei said on Thursday the company may swap its stake in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for a controlling stake in DirecTV Group Inc..

''We were saying in the market place that we may exchange our roughly billion stake in News Corp. for a controlling stake in DirecTV,'' Liberty's chief executive officer said at a Shop.org conference.

Media reports in September had said DirecTV was the subject of discussions of a swap between the two media conglomerates, with News Corp. looking to give up its controlling stake in the U.S. satellite television provider in order to buy back Liberty Media's 20 percent interest in News Corp.

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