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...It will hope to pick up subscribers from former NFL Sunday Ticket rights holder DirecTV. There is a reason Apple and Amazon do not separate out profits and losses from their own streaming services....
...The sale epitomises a growing shift away from expensive cable packages towards streamers, with Sunday Ticket now set to leave its longtime home on AT&T’s DirecTV satellite platform....
...John Stankey, AT&T chief executive, said splitting off DirecTV would allow for “optimum value creation”....
...Since the announcement of the DirecTV deal in 2014, AT&T shares are down a tenth, a figure that would be worse if AT&T had not fortuitously avoided cutting its dividend....
...The more than $15bn valuation that the bids give DirecTV include the unit’s debt....
...Stankey, a telecoms veteran, was the driving force behind AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV, the satellite TV broadcaster, and Time Warner....
...But instead he opted to buy DirecTV for $67bn in 2015, including debt....
...The latter bought satellite TV service provider DirecTV for almost $50bn in 2015....
...“[But now] in the region in which we operate, DirecTV no longer exists.”...
...After the failed acquisitions of both Time Warner and DirecTV, together costing $175bn, AT&T shareholders are surely exhausted and traumatised. Media dealmaking has led to a string of calamities....
...Remember US private equity group TPG bought a large minority stake in DirecTV in February....
...In February, the telecoms company also sold a 30 per cent stake in DirecTV to US private equity group TPG, valuing the ailing television business at $16.25bn — roughly a third of what AT&T paid for it six...
...This included selling a 30 per cent stake in DirecTV to private equity group TPG this year, a deal that valued the ailing television business at $16.25bn — roughly a third of what AT&T paid for it six years...
...Known for his plain spoken pragmatism, Stankey has also this year jettisoned DirecTV, the satellite broadcaster whose acquisition was another flagship transaction by his mentor....
...The deal with Sony’s Funimation Global Group also coincides with an auction to sell AT&T’s satellite division DirecTV as part of a review of its assets....
...DirecTV and Time Warner were already fading in the era of Netflix by the time Mr Stephenson paid premium prices for them....
...This includes a sale of DirecTV, the cable TV business acquired by AT&T back in 2014 for $67.1bn including debt. It is easy to see why Elliott thinks DirecTV should go....
...Mr Stephenson’s time at the helm has been marked by a series of megadeals, including the $48.5bn acquisition of DirecTV in 2014 and a $39bn bid for T-Mobile, which was later blocked by antitrust regulators...
...Elliott’s interest in the company should speed up this process and make the spin-off or sale of DirecTV more likely. Clearly the market likes a break-up....
...DirecTV is even losing users of its streaming service, DirecTV Now.* The company insists that even if its TV subscriber base is shrinking, the best customers remain and operating profit at the unit is unchanged...
...AT&T’s management is fighting to justify its strategic decision to move into the content and pay-TV business with the $80bn takeover of Time Warner and $67bn acquisition of DirecTV, which left it lumbered...
...It also took aim at AT&T’s purchase of DirecTV and its failure to buy T-Mobile, saying “possibly the most damaging deal was the one not done”....
US telecoms group says it is on track to meet its deleveraging goals
...However, others say that it is too easy to point fingers at AT&T for mismanaging DirecTV or damaging HBO....
...But the skittishness among its shareholders can be traced to its 2015 $49bn purchase of satellite TV group, DirecTV....
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