News Corp. investors OK Liberty Media asset swap

News Corp. shareholders approved an $11-billion asset swap that increases Rupert Murdoch’s control over the company and transfers DirecTV Group Inc. to John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp.

The transaction was approved by 99.8% of Class B shareholders, who voted by proxy, Murdoch told investors at a special meeting in New York. Under the agreement signed in December, News Corp. will buy back the 16.3% stake held by Liberty in the company.

The swap ends a two-year standoff that led Murdoch to install a shareholder-rights plan to stop Malone, Liberty’s chairman, from raising his holdings in News Corp. The exchange, which for News Corp. amounts to a stock repurchase, will lift the Murdoch family’s stake in News Corp. to 38% from 31%.