Liberty-News Corp. deal seen close

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Liberty Media and News Corp are close to reaching an agreement that would allow News Corp to buy back an $11 billion stake in exchange for a stake in the satellite TV firm DirecTV, according to a report published Wednesday.

Citing people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal's online edition reported late Wednesday that a deal could be finalized in the next few weeks.

While discussions have been ongoing for several months now, the two companies made significant headway in talks this week, the paper reported.

Both Liberty (Charts) and News Corp. (Charts) declined to provide comment to the Journal.

As part of the deal, News Corp. would reacquire Liberty's $11 billion piece of the media outfit, while Liberty would get a 39 percent stake in DirecTV (Charts).

Speaking at an investor conference Wednesday, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said that the stake in DirecTV would help protect its content assets, like cable channels QVC and Discovery, the Journal reported.

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