AT&T to Announce DirecTV Acquisition

The deal is going to be worth $50 billion

What were merely rumors just a few days back have now been confirmed. AT&T is finally going to acquire the satellite provider DirecTV and according to some new reports, the announcement regarding the acquisition will be made today. However, a source has told Buzzfeed that the deed has already been done and DirecTV CEO Mike White has also informed all the senior executives of the company that the deal with AT&T has worked out. The final stage is just the announcement where both parties will officially agree to the settlement.

Once the deal has come into effect, AT&T and its U-verse is going to receive more footing against cable rival Comcast. The former currently enjoys roughly 5.7 million subscribers or so, whereas the latter is currently trying to convince federal regulators that its recent interest in acquiring Time-Warner Cable should pass antitrust scrutiny.

According to industry analyst Jeff Kagan, “If they approve one they have to approve both. It’s hard to know [AT&T’s] thinking on this. It could be a way to get their deal on the same wave of regulatory approval, or it could be a way to derail the Comcast merger.”

The deal is going to be worth $50 billion which means between $92 and $94 per share. There is also a possibility that AT&T might also unload its video services to satellite which is going to leave a lot of space on their pipelines to provide faster Internet service for U-Verse.

“If we as consumers have the choice for either AT&T or Verizon or CenturyLink or Comcast or whatever in the same space, that will drive innovation, and drive prices down. There is a growing level of competition that there wasn’t 10 years ago,” Kagan said.

source: pcmag