Less than a week before it announced its $67 billion merger with AT&T, DirecTV continued to hold talks with an undisclosed competitor, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday.
DirecTV first held talks with the competitor, identified only as Company A, back in 2011, but broke off discussions in September of that year without an offer being made. DirecTV chairman Mike White and his counterpart at Company A met briefly when both attended a conference in Washington D.C, in December of 2013, discussing operational challenges and the potential for a combination. Those talks heated up in February 2014, in the wake of Comcast’s announcement that it would buy Time Warner Cable in a deal valued at about $69 billion in stock and assumed debt.
While Company A was not identified in the SEC filings, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen was said to have contacted White about merger possibilities shortly after the Comcast/TWC deal was announced, according to several published reports. Dish also owns a large swath of wireless spectrum, which it plans to use for a wireless broadband service.
In March, while it was still holding preliminary discussions with Company A, White had a brief meeting with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson while both were attending an unrelated Washington D.C. conference, where the possibility of a merger was brought up.
Source & More: multichannelnews.com
DirecTV first held talks with the competitor, identified only as Company A, back in 2011, but broke off discussions in September of that year without an offer being made. DirecTV chairman Mike White and his counterpart at Company A met briefly when both attended a conference in Washington D.C, in December of 2013, discussing operational challenges and the potential for a combination. Those talks heated up in February 2014, in the wake of Comcast’s announcement that it would buy Time Warner Cable in a deal valued at about $69 billion in stock and assumed debt.
While Company A was not identified in the SEC filings, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen was said to have contacted White about merger possibilities shortly after the Comcast/TWC deal was announced, according to several published reports. Dish also owns a large swath of wireless spectrum, which it plans to use for a wireless broadband service.
In March, while it was still holding preliminary discussions with Company A, White had a brief meeting with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson while both were attending an unrelated Washington D.C. conference, where the possibility of a merger was brought up.
Source & More: multichannelnews.com
