[Satellite TODAY 04-08-10] DirecTV Chairman John Malone is resigning from the company’s Board of Directors and will recapitalize his family’s stock ownership of DirecTV to satisfy conditions imposed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) when it was acquired by Liberty Media in February 2009, the broadcaster announced April 7.

    Under the terms of the agreement, the Malones will exchange about 21.8 million shares of class B DirecTV stock for 26.5 million shares of class A stock, a move which would reduce the Malones’ voting interest in DirecTV from approximately 24.3 percent to approximately 3 percent. 

    It is also expected that Liberty Media President and CEO Greg Maffei and Liberty Global board member Paul Gould will also resign from the board of directors of DirecTV at the closing of the transaction.

    The FCC conditions relate to the acquisition by Liberty Media Corp. of its interest in DirecTV in February 2009 from News Corp. Concerns over the potential overlap of DirecTV’s satellite businesses resulted in an FCC order, which required that the attributable interests connecting DirecTV Puerto Rico and Liberty Cablevision Puerto Rico be severed within one year. 

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