Report: AT&T Could Buy DirecTV for $50 Billion
AT&T is in advanced talks to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV for about $100 per share, or roughly $50 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The two companies are working toward a deal announcement as soon as within the next two weeks and hammering out final terms such as whether to have a break-up fee in place, the person said, asking not to be named because the matter is not public.
The deal price has yet to be finalized and terms could still change, the person added.
AT&T and DirecTV declined to comment. Bloomberg News earlier reported that AT&T was offering to pay around $100 per share for DirecTV, whose management team will continue to run the company as a unit of AT&T. The Wall Street Journal said a deal could happen in two weeks.
As USA Today concluded, the merger would “represent the latest sign of consolidation hitting the pay TV industry,” following Comcast’s ongoing attempt to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion, announced earlier this year and still going through regulatory hurdles.
(Reporting by Ronald Grover in Los Angeles, Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Tom Brown)
