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AT&T Talking to DirecTV About Potential Acquisition

Article Comments  19  

May 1, 2014, 7:36 AM   by Eric M. Zeman   @phonescooper

AT&T has spoken to DirecTV about the possibility of acquiring the satellite TV firm, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing sources familiar with AT&T's plans, the Journal says AT&T wants to grab more pay-TV marketshare and approached DirecTV after Comcast made a bid for Time Warner earlier this year. DirecTV has about 20 million subscribers, and AT&T's U-Verse offering has just under 6 million subscribers. Combined, AT&T and DirecTV would be about the same size - 26 million customers - as the combined Comcast-Time Warner would be. DirecTV's current market capitalization is about $40 billion and AT&T's is about $185 billion, which means it should be fairly easy for AT&T to swallow DirecTV. Dish Networks, the country's other large satellite TV provider, recently won wireless spectrum at auction and has plans to launch a mobile broadband network at some point. Dish's moves and AT&T's interest in DirecTV signal continued consolidation in the TV-internet-phone businesses. It's not clear if or how acquiring DirecTV would impact AT&T's wireless business. Neither AT&T nor DirecTV commented on the Journal's report.

more info at Wall Street Journal »

Related

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AT&T Says More Local Channels Coming to DirecTV Now

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Comments

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This forum is closed.

ReaperXero

May 7, 2014, 7:35 AM

Here we go again

One ring to rule them all..
Zpike

May 1, 2014, 11:29 AM

YAY

Yay for consumers! This couldn't possibly be bad.
nicolasl46
Time will tell. Direct TV is an amazing company with an even better customer service. The only reason I dropped them last month, its because they don't offer internet service in my area (outside DSL) and Time Warner was going to increase my internet s...
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tjobrien21
It may not be such a good thing. I have had AT&T wireless and landline in the past, and some of my customers are stuck with their data service for their offices.

In all cases, the customer service has been horrible, so if DirectTV ever provided go...
(continues)
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Zpike
It seems that my sarcasm was wasted.
...
Joshmo

May 2, 2014, 11:54 AM

Comcast wont let this happen.....

They will throw any amount of money they have to at Washington to get this blocked.
Zpike
And though I hate Comcast, they should try to block this. But lets be realistic... ATT has the deeper pockets and the longer history with Washington.
WhySoBluePandaBear

May 2, 2014, 5:43 AM

AT&T is so concerned about brand image and reputation

They won't screw this up. I think we got some wise people leading this company - they think business, but aren't greedy Madoff's like the rest of the industry is.
Zpike
You must be trolling. No one could possibly believe that. This is the same ATT that wants to charge three times for the same content.

1. They will charge consumers for access to the content on the internet.
2. They will charge content providers fo...
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