AT&T Nears DirecTV Acquisition
So Comcast will own most of the cable system and ATT will own the biggest satellite provider. May as well buy Dish, too. Get rid of that pointless duplication and fire a boatload of redundant personnel.
Oh, and raise rates. A lot.
NEW YORK May 17 (Reuters) - AT&T is close to announcing that it will buy the No. 1 U.S. satellite TV operator DirecTV, according to people familiar with the matter, in the second potentially transformative deal to jolt the U.S. television industry this year.
AT&T has been in active discussions to buy DirecTV for nearly $50 billion, or low to mid-$90s per share, and has been working to finalize a deal in coming weeks, Reuters reported last Monday.
The two companies agreed key terms of the proposed transaction and are expected to announce the agreement in days pending final approval from each company’s board, one of the people said on Saturday, asking not to be named because the matter is not public.
The takeover would be the latest in a string of mega-acquisitions AT&T has considered, including an abortive bid for T-Mobile USA in 2011, as well as a potential takeover of Vodafone Plc, which receded as a possibility after Comcast Corp surprised the industry this year with a $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable Inc.