AT&T exploring Deal to sell off DIRECTV.

[Scott Greczkowski]

WSJ News Exclusive | AT&T Again Exploring a Deal for DirecTV

AT&T is taking a fresh look at its DirecTV business, according to people familiar with the matter, exploring a deal for a satellite-TV service wounded by cord-cutting.

www.wsj.com

Sorry its behind a paywall.

 

[hokie74]

Hardly surprising news.


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[Rolling Joe]

WSJ News Exclusive | AT&T Again Exploring a Deal for DirecTV

AT&T is taking a fresh look at its DirecTV business, according to people familiar with the matter, exploring a deal for a satellite-TV service wounded by cord-cutting.

www.wsj.com

Sorry its behind a paywall.

Try this:

After Buying DirecTV For $50 Billion In 2015, AT&T Now Seeks To Sell It For Under $20 Billion

 

[Juan]

Its the spinoff thing with private equity investors...they want to merge it with dish...but not with charlie...you think its bad under att..it can be alot worse

 

[slice1900]

I'll bet the private equity guys are the ones who started this rumor... If they do end up selling Directv, I'm willing to bet AT&T TV comes along with it.

 

[Yespage]

Why would private equity want to buy a giant of the dinosaur age? It isn't a viable long term investment and how much can be sold for parts?

 

[Radioguy41]

I wonder at what point AT&T decides the best route would be to get totally out of the TV business since they obviously and painfully have no idea what they're doing. Personally I think it's going to take a major shakeup at the top of the corporate ladder because the people responsible for this mess are never going to admit it and to sell off DTV and/or other TV services would be a de-facto admission of failure.

 

[Jimbo]

Try this:

After Buying DirecTV For $50 Billion In 2015, AT&T Now Seeks To Sell It For Under $20 Billion

For only 20 Billion, someone might actually put money INTO it again and make it Great again.

 

[Jimbo]

I wonder at what point AT&T decides the best route would be to get totally out of the TV business since they obviously and painfully have no idea what they're doing. Personally I think it's going to take a major shakeup at the top of the corporate ladder because the people responsible for this mess are never going to admit it and to sell off DTV and/or other TV services would be a de-facto admission of failure.

I doubt they would abandon the Streaming side of things, they will continue to tweak what they have and dump some while starting another to see if they can hit on something ... at the moment its ATT TV TW ... that will change, yet again.

Please, NO BODY sign up for a Year or longer Contract with ANYBODY ...

If someone sees that a Contract will start to work, they all will want to go that way.

1 year contract, I could see, because if its something I like, I'll pay once a year for it, but they should offer a discount if they want the yearly amount.

 

[nelson61]

Why would private equity want to buy a giant of the dinosaur age? It isn't a viable long term investment and how much can be sold for parts?

Usually the vultures will slash and whack , sell off good parts and borrow on the rest with junk bonds.

Everything aimed at sucking cash out of the corpse and leaving a dry shell.

The last thing you want to be is a Directv employee. It would/will to be ugly.

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[Justy5]

For only 20 Billion, someone might actually put money INTO it again and make it Great again.

Maybe - Trumpy can plug it. Anyone has his direct line?

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[Jimbo]

Maybe - Trumpy can plug it. Anyone has his direct line?

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God No .... he'd just raise the prices on everyones bill and watch it sink.

 

[rad]

Does AT&T really need the money that bad? I mean DIRECTV is still bringing in money to the death star. And if they lost all the DIRECTV subs what would that do to the contracts and pricing for the channels on AT&T TV? I thought one of the reason AT&T wanted them for their customer base to allow them to get better pricing for their streaming service channels. Would it also impact their wireless customer base for the customers that might switch providers if they lose the benefits that come with the combined company such as streaming DIRECTV/AT&T TV doesn't count against usage and free HBO for certain package?

 

[slice1900]

Why would private equity want to buy a giant of the dinosaur age? It isn't a viable long term investment and how much can be sold for parts?

If they really can get it for $20 billion they'll make money. Directv is still generating over $1 billion in cash flow each quarter despite the subscriber losses, so if they can maintain that it'll pay for itself in less than five years.

Maybe they can't maintain that forever (though they have so far) but they'd easily make a nice return in a decade. That's around the time when the satellites might start needing to be replaced, but the business would probably mostly be whatever "AT&T TV" is renamed to rather than an actual satellite business by then, as broadband/5G would be available to most people in the US.

As for why AT&T would be willing to sell for only $20 billion, I'm skeptical. The one thing in favor of that is that the CEO who did the purchase is retiring, so the new guy can blame the old guy for the big loss. If he was staying on he wouldn't want to take the loss on the sale himself.

AT&T has owned it for what five years now? So they've probably skimmed at least $20 billion in profit off it, and got the benefit of better programming cost for Uverse TV, so if they could get $25 billion it might be close to break even. Not that they were looking for break even when they bought it, but at this point they'd probably take it.

 

[ncted]

They should be forced to sell it given all the FCC complaints AT&T is getting over giving themselves favorable pricing for their own channels -- something they agreed not do to initially, and then promised not to do during the trial when the feds fought the merger. They are charging Comcast, Charter, etc. more for TimeWarner channels than they charge DirecTV, which is monopolistic behavior. Of course, given the erosion of antitrust enforcement over the past couple of decades, I have no expectation that anything will happen to AT&T on this front.

 

[Juan]

Why would private equity want to buy a giant of the dinosaur age? It isn't a viable long term investment and how much can be sold for parts?

They want both providers..M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y for rural areas

 

[Juan]

Why would private equity want to buy a giant of the dinosaur age? It isn't a viable long term investment and how much can be sold for parts?

Its also the sameway they got rid of yellow pages, phonebooks, paging services and unprofitable landlines...its biggest draw us that its a big fat tax writeoff

 

[Yespage]

They should be forced to sell it given all the FCC complaints AT&T is getting over giving themselves favorable pricing for their own channels -- something they agreed not do to initially, and then promised not to do during the trial when the feds fought the merger. They are charging Comcast, Charter, etc. more for TimeWarner channels than they charge DirecTV, which is monopolistic behavior. Of course, given the erosion of antitrust enforcement over the past couple of decades, I have no expectation that anything will happen to AT&T on this front.

Erosion? I'd say elimination.

 

[Cubs1]

Why att buy it directv first place if u want so bad buy now att complaint don't have money that's silly u already own directv and att now and internet and att wireless service and cable company no making nonsense at all why they want rid of it directv u just brought directv they shouldn't never brought it first place that's too bad I'm not leaving directv I'm happy with service if they trying rid I guess I had to go back cable again because ofc is not enough Channels on Comcast that's one plm I'm happy with directv had more channels than Comcast


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[Bruce]

Why would private equity want to buy a giant of the dinosaur age? It isn't a viable long term investment and how much can be sold for parts?

It will be a much bigger Dinosaur if StarLink works out like they say it will, all those rural customers will have access to high speed internet and all the entertainment choices that come with it.