Roxanne Austin, president and chief operating officer of DirecTV and executive vice president of Hughes Electronics Corp., elected to leave the company when News Corp.'s acquisition of DirecTV parent company, Hughes, is complete. Austin was credited with DirecTV's 37-percent rise in revenue after a rough financial period two years ago.
News Corp. named Mitchell Stern, chief executive of its Fox Television stations unit, to replace Austin. A source for DirecTV said, "Austin made it clear that her aspirations were to become a chairwoman. There simply wasn't that opportunity at DirecTV under the current circumstances."
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp., will become chairman of Hughes after the deal closes later this year. News Corp. was unavailable for comment, and Hughes and DirecTV executives declined to further comment.
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