Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Media Corp., the company led by John Malone, agreed to sell stakes in Time Warner Inc. and CBS Corp. in exchange for more than $1 billion in cash and control of the Atlanta Braves baseball team.

Liberty will exchange about 60 million Time Warner shares for the Braves, Leisure Arts craft magazines and $1 billion in cash, according to a person familiar with the matter. CBS will trade a television station and $170 million in cash for CBS shares held by Liberty, the companies said today in a statement.

The tax-free swaps are part of an effort by Chief Executive Officer Greg Maffei to turn the Englewood, Colorado-based media company into a collection of operating assets rather than shareholdings. The Braves and TV station will add to the QVC shopping network, Starz movie channel and control of DirecTV Group Inc., obtained from News Corp. in a similar exchange.

``It's a good thing for Liberty,'' said Andrew Baker, an analyst at Cathay Financial in New York. He rates Liberty Capital shares ``neutral'' and doesn't own them. ``They're getting out of a passive investment and getting cashflow- generating assets.''

John Orr, a spokesman for Liberty, declined to comment on the exchange with Time Warner.

News Corp. Trade

Maffei, hired by Malone in 2005, was charged with unraveling Liberty's holdings and forming a cohesive company. So far he has traded back a 16 percent stake in New York-based News Corp. to gain control of DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, and negotiated the exchanges with Time Warner and CBS.

Shares of the Liberty Capital tracking stock rose $2.75, or 2.6 percent, to $106.74 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock has risen 52 percent since it began trading in May.

The transaction with Time Warner values the Braves at $460 million and the magazines at $22 million, according to the person, who declined to be identified because details of the deal are confidential. The agreement was signed yesterday, the person said.

Time Warner, the world's largest media company, will reduce its shares outstanding as part of its $20 billion share buyback program. Liberty owns about 170 million Time Warner shares.

The Braves ownership change must be approved by Major League Baseball.

CBS Agreement

Under the agreement with New York-based CBS, worth about $234 million, Liberty will exchange its 7.59 million shares in CBS for WFRV-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and $170 million in cash, the companies said today in a statement. The station, in the home of the National Football League's Green Bay Packers, is valued at $64 million.

John Blackledge, an analyst with J.P. Morgan Securities in New York, said in a report today the tax-free deal enables CBS to sell one of the four remaining small-market TV stations it ``likely'' has on the market and also buy back about 1 percent of its stock.

Shares of CBS, owner of the most-watched television network, rose 57 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $31.88 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Time Warner shares rose 33 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $21.50 and have risen 18 percent in the past year.

The change in control of the CBS station requires approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ted Bunker in Boston at tbunker1@Bloomberg.net; Don Jeffrey in New York at djeffrey1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 13, 2007 16:18 EST