Time Warner Trades Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media

Time Warner will give the team, a pair of craft magazines, and $1 billion in cash, for around 60 million shares of Time Warner owned by Liberty Media, the Wall Street Journal reported. Liberty still retains about 111 million shares in Time Warner, or 2.6 percent of the company.

The deal values the Braves at $450 million would need the approval of Major League Baseball.

Liberty also announced a separate deal to give back $64 million in CBS Corp. shares to the company in return for a Green Bay, Wisc. television station and $170 million.

Both deals are tax-free transactions.

Liberty is shifting its strategy away from being a holding company as it moves to have controlling interest in its investments.

Late last year, the company exchanged a stake in News Corp. to gain a control of satellite company DirecTV, along with three sports networks and over half a billion in cash.

Shares of Liberty Media (Capital) rose 2.63 percent, or $2.74 to $106.74 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.